


Lost in Smoke

by redflannel



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:48:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 41,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22271317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redflannel/pseuds/redflannel
Summary: This story follows three best friends who are part of the drifting community. They became friends after the first competition they met and now living under one house. Will they get lost in the smoke or will they come out the victor?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Johannes pov

**Author's Note:**

> This original work had started off on tumblr and since then I can't log into the email my cowriter and I are using for the tumblr, so I just moved the story here. If you like it let us know in the comments down below. I really enjoy writing this story, but I do apologise in advance that some of the chapters won't have the correct translations because we used google translate. Also the chapters will take a while to update because life happens and it takes a while to write. Hope you enjoy the story that's written so far!

Bzzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzt!

It’s 8 a.m. who in the hell is calling me at this absurd hour? Maybe if I ignore it, they’ll leave me alone.

Bzzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzt!

It could be my manager. Maybe we could be getting car parts! I love car parts. Fine. My hand instinctively answers the call as I open my eyes. I pop my ear buds in and I’m greeted with a sweet and familiar voice.

“Are you awake yet!? You better be because I’m about to knock your fucking socks off!”

“What if I’m not wearing socks?”

“Then put socks on smart ass! We are going to be making some loud noises!” Kara, my manager, squealed with excitement. I love it when she does that, makes me go absolutely crazy. But right now, I can’t focus on her and the random sounds she makes.

“We’re getting the anti-lag system?”

“Well not only that, we’re getting turbos for damn near nothing!”

“But we’re still paying for them.”

“It’s cheap Jo. Please be happy.”

“I am! I’m ecstatic, it’s just that, we don’t have the means to be spending extra on shit. Especially since I’m not one hundred percent confident that I’m not going to blow the motor.”

“I know, I know. Relax. I was on the phone all morning with them. I gave them the information, and they assured me that our setup is a reliable setup–”

“Besides the fireballs that will be shot into the turbo every time I get off throttle, meaning we’ll have to replace it again and again.”

“Let me finish. It’s a reliable setup if we don’t run more than 30 lbs of boost. Anything above that and we’re in the detonation zone. Just don’t touch the boost controller and everything is golden. We’re fine.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to go in—“

“Jo. Shut up. We’ll be fine. Go back to sleep. You’re a pain in the ass when you’re tired. Bye.”

*click*

I fucking hate her. But I’m also hopelessly in love with her as well. Kara Phan has been the one person to who has helped me tremendously in getting my program off the ground. Without her, I have no idea what I would be doing outside of being boring as shit. But she’s also the one that got away. As I stare at the ceiling, I relapse on our brief stint at a relationship which didn’t work out because I paid no attention to her. I’ll take the blame for that as everything was in preparation for this season, which she has been a huge help with, but I didn’t give her the attention she needed. I spent all my time with the car and was always too tired or too busy for her. We ended on good terms but now she’s dating someone else and I die a little every time I see them together. Whatever. I have a race car and he doesn’t.

I sigh deeply, roll over, and get out of bed. I throw on some pants and a shirt, toss my phone, keys, and wallet in my backpack, fix my teal sunglasses over my eyes and prepare to head out; it’s time to get to work. I walk into the kitchen of the quiet house and grab some cereal. I think about what needs to be done today as I eat, and then as swiftly as I began, I’m finished. After a quick brushing of my teeth, I then make my way out the back door. As I saunter towards the garage in the back, I thank myself for grabbing the sunglasses. It’s a bright day this morning in San Diego. I take some time walking over the soft grass instead of the hard walkway leading up to the garage.  
It’s a nice relaxing ride to the shop where we keep the cars and takes around 20 minutes at my leisurely pace. I pull up and I’m greeted with quite the sight for sore eyes. My baby. My teal blue Nissan S15 that I will be campaigning in Formula Drift this year, and parked next to her is the black FD RX-7 of my roommate, well one of them, Nico Verstappen. The third car, which is usually here, a Hyundai Genesis is missing from its usual spot on the lift.

“They went testing already?” I greet Nico with a smile.

“Yeah, they left last night while you were asleep. Something about not wanting to wake up early.” He returns the smile.

We’re referring to our other roommate Lauren Deveraux and her on again-off again boyfriend Ansel Babineaux. We’re all sort of a team, but we’re not a team. Nico, Ansel, and I are all driving in the Pro 1 series of Formula Drift but we’re all on different teams. Sort of. Nico and I travel together with our cars while Ansel and Lauren do their own thing. I don’t know what she sees in him, but I stay away from it. The heart wants what the heart wants.  
Today is slated to be a long day, with our other crew members busy or out of town, Nico and I have a lot of work to do on our cars in the next 3 days in order for us to go testing. We always go out together; it makes the time up at Willow Springs more fun, plus we drive better since we’re so competitive. It’s just how it’s been since we both moved to California together. We met in competition over in Europe; with me being from Norway I tend to visit family over there when I have the time. Nico, on the other hand is from Finland and was driving King of Europe at the time. I had a few friends lend me a car and I entered the round in France. On one practice run, I was just putting down a conservative pass, trying to make sure I can do the course with the car. That’s when this cocky fucker pins it to my door. I don’t take that shit. So we line up again, this time with me in follow and I do the same. From then on we just traded places and ran with each other. We got to talking afterwards and from there a friendship started. We impressed this girl who was a spotter for another driver, that girl was Lauren. It was then that we became a team without the label.

“Hey Jo! Come help me with this turbo setup!” Nico broke my reminiscence.  
We jam out on the cars all day, sometimes helping each other on our respective machines. By 9 pm, we hear the sounds of a diesel truck.

“They’re baaaaaaack.” sang Nico.

I laugh but continue working. I needed to finish installing my suspension so I can get the car on the ground for my wiring guy to come by tomorrow and then we go tune the car the day after. That’s if it actually starts with no issues. The firing up of a V8 catches my attention which means that Ansel would be bringing the car in. His LS7 powered Genesis is enough to wake up the nearby neighbourhoods, but he doesn’t care, and if I’m being honest, none of us do. But we haven’t had the cops called on us so all is well. Ansel hops out when he gets it parked and it’s obvious he is excited about the day.

“It runs like a dream boys! So believe you both owe me twenty dollars! American, Nico, no Euros like last time you asshole.”

That was my idea actually. We entered a bet with Ansel knowing we’d lose and paid him in Euros just to see him have a fit. Yet again we entered a bet we’d knowingly lose; the wager was the first one to finish they’re car and run with no issues gets 20 bucks. He was further along than us but we didn’t care. This time I’m going to pay him in Euros and it will be great.

“Hey boys! I know you haven’t eaten all day so we stopped for tacos on the way in!”

Typical Lauren. She’s the mom of the group basically. Always making sure we eat and ad we’re all well prepared. She’s another girl I feel would have been right for me. But I’m not one to ruin a relationship, plus with things with me and Kara, it wouldn’t be right. That and you know the saying, don’t shit where you eat? Being roommates, that would basically describe the situation if Lauren and I were to date and breakup; i would be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it. On the flip side of the coin, I am in love with my manager which could end up terribly. Lauren drops the food on the table and walks outside again. The remaining three of us wash our hands and get to eating. For the first time in a few hours I check my phone and I have 15 text messages, 4 missed calls, and 2 voice mails from Kara. My stomach drops. She never blows up my phone unless something is wrong. everything seemed to have come through in the last half hour. I quickly wipe off my hands and immediately call her back and I hear crying. Both over the phone and in person.


	2. Lauren's pov

It was four in the early evening when we had packed up from finished testing out the Genesis and we hit the road by four-thirty, since it would take us at least four hours to get back home. William was asleep in his car seat and I was going over the footage that we had recorded during test while Ansel was driving. We had come up to Willow Springs the night before so we didn’t have to wake up super early to come here and test. I also had recently found out that Ansel and my two roommates had made a bet to see who would be the first to get their car done and be the first to test the car without having any problems, the winner of the bet gets paid twenty bucks. So, Ansel - being the productive man he is - he was the first to finish his car and to test it, winning the bet. I honestly don’t understand why both Nico and Johannes - my two roommates that I met back at an event in France - had made the bet, knowing that they would lose the bet. Last time they made the bet that Ansel had won, they two of them had paid Ansel in Euros instead of American dollars.

How we all met was during the drift competition that France was holding, Nico and Johannes were doing a practice run and the both of them had pin each other’s doors during their run. During their practice run I was in the spotter stand watching them as I got ready for our tandem practice. After their practice was finished Ansel and Christopher, one of Ansel’s teammates and our mutual friend, had ran their practice, I had left the spotter stand with our son to go find the two other drivers that had impressed me with their tandem practice. That’s how the three of us had become friends and decided to move out of Europe and lived in the States to compete in Formula Drift. I kept watching the testing run from today and saw a couple mistakes that he made, but I just made mental notes on what to tell Ansel. I mean I could tell him now the mistakes he had made today during testing, but I don’t want it to end up in an argument. Ansel and I have been together ever since I was seventeen and he was nineteen, and a year later William were born. When I had hit the age of twenty-two, Ansel and I packed whatever we had in our flat and moved to San Diego, California in the States. Of course, in order for us to be permanent residents here we applied for citizenship and here we are.

We were now permanent residents in the state of California. I was still going over the footage when I heard William’s sleepy voice snapping me out from watching the footage.

“Mommy, I have to go pee.” William told me as I turned off the video camera and put it in its bag before turning to look at my son.

“Okay, honey. Your daddy will find a restroom. Can you hold it?” I asked William and he nodded before I turned to Ansel, who was already making his way to the nearest exit.

****

It was barely nine at night when we had finally pulled up to the shop and both my roommates were in the shop working on their cars. When Ansel had parked our truck, got the Genesis out to put it on the lift, I got the bag of tacos we bought on our way to the shop. I heard Ansel’s cheery voice saying the car ran like a dream and that the two of them owed him twenty American dollars and not Euros. I tried to be not too loud since William was sleeping from the drive and it was his bedtime.

“Hey boys! I know you haven’t eaten all day so we stopped for tacos on the way in!” I told them as I set the bag of food on the table in the shop before heading back to the truck to get William out. When I got him out of his car seat, locked the doors to the truck, and headed back inside William had woken up and started crying. I heard a phone ring inside the shop as I tried calming William down as I see all three men in the shop were eating the tacos that we had brought back. I was trying to remember when was the last time that William had last eaten anything, realizing that he ate three hours ago with snacks in between. He only had fallen asleep an hour away from home, so with him crying now he’s both cranky that he was woken up and hungry.

****

After William was fed, had a bath, and dressed into clean pajamas he finally went to sleep in the bed Ansel and I shared back at the house. Ansel was on his laptop sitting at the foot of the bed looking up something, while I had got my laptop out to load the footage from the video camera. While my computer was booting up, I had gotten my small journal out to take physical notes on what Ansel needed to work on. Since we were in mid-February, we had over two months to get everything all settled, including getting sponsors. As I watched the footage with earphones in order not to wake up my son, I took down notes till I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders causing me to jump. I paused the footage before taking an earphone out and looked at Ansel- who was currently reading the notes over my shoulder. I couldn’t read his expression he was making while reading through the notes, but in my gut, I knew whatever he was thinking wasn’t good.

“What’s this?” He asked as he pointed to the notes that I made.

“What does it look like? It's notes from today. I’m going over the footage and these are things you need to improve on.” I told him as I looked back at my screen and played the video.

“I can see that, but why are you making notes? I did perfectly well during testing. The car ran like a dream, and I didn’t break anything on the car.” He told me as he sounded frustrated as I continued to write down more notes. “Everything is all good.”

“Not everything is all good, Ansel. You know this is our second year competing in Formula D. The first round you ended in the top 16, second round you made it to the top 8, and the rest of the rounds you didn’t even try thinking you have everything in the bag.” I kept my voice down as I paused the video to look at him. “We aren’t in France anymore. The cocky attitude of yours was the reason why we lost last year. No matter what I told you about hitting those clipping points, put a great lead, and chase, you still didn’t listen to me. How can I be a good manager and spotter if my driver doesn’t listen to me?”

Ansel looked like he wanted to say something, but he knew I was right. Instead he did something that he hadn’t done in forever as he got the notebook from beside my laptop.

“I’m sorry.” He apologized as he was thoughtful on reading over the notes that I made. “I’m sorry that I haven’t listened to you and I will do my best to listen to you when you tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

I looked his face over before he met my eyes and saw that he was being sincere when he was apologizing to me. He’s the biological father of William, my driver, and my on-and-off boyfriend for the past five years, so it would make sense on why I wanted to make this relationship work. “Alright, since we’re going to change somethings to make sure you win this year or at least get a podium. Let’s hope you’re ready for what’s to come.” I told him as I quit everything on my computer before shutting it off and got ready for bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise that this chapter is short. Some of the chapters will be short and some of them are longer.


	3. Johannes pov

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can already tell that the chapters alternate from Lauren's POV to Jo's POV. There's also some foreign language in the chapter so if you plug it into google translate it'll come out with a weird translation, but I hope you get the gist of what the character is saying.

“W-Wayde b-b-broke up with me.” She managed to get out. I had a moment of glee but it was gone instantly and replaced by anger. Who was this asshole to break her heart? So we talked for what seemed like an hour but turned out to be two. She said she didn’t want to be alone tonight and was coming over to the shop. We hung up and I went back inside to fill everyone in, but when I walked in I only saw Nico still slaving away on his rotary. I went back to work on the suspension and after getting everything buttoned up, started lowering the car when I heard a knock.

I look up and see the beautiful, but tear stained face of Kara. I walk over and she collapses against me in a fit of tears. As I hug her tightly she pushes me away, takes my hand and utters softly, almost in a whisper, “We need to talk.” My heart raced as she led me to the office. Nobody ever wants to hear those words.

When we finally came out of the office and into the main shop area, Nico seemed to have given up for the night and took off. I still needed to install my seats and harnesses so I had Kara help me with that. We were quiet. She knows that she just dropped a bomb on me and I needed to think. But she broke the silence after almost 20 minutes.

“Thank you.” she said softly.

“For?”

“Just being there for me. I know it wasn’t the easiest for you being around me and him. I know it was probably harder than I can imagine, but thank  
you.”

“It’s nothing, really.”

Back to silence. I needed to be alone with my thoughts for a while. I needed to drive. But my car wasn’t done yet and my S13 is currently broken. I got the seats and the harnesses in and decided to call it a night. I locked up, set the alarm, and we got into her car, a BMW 138i. As we pull out, I turn to her, “Did you mean it? What you said in the office?”

“You’ve been thinking about that this whole time? Yes. I did. I do. That’s the reason he broke up with me. I wasn’t crying because it’s over between me and him. I was crying because he was right and I feel like I made a mistake a year ago.”

Silence. I stare out the window, the gears in my head turning in my head.

“So.” I pause.

“So?”

Looking into her light brown eyes I offer, “Round 2?”

Her beaming smile was all that I needed. We pull up to the house and, hand in hand, make our way inside and into my room. The next day, Monday, I awoke to Kara halfway draped across my body. Without disturbing her, I got ready to head over to the shop. In the midst of my preparation, I decide to try and right my wrongs and head down to a local restaurant and pick up a couple breakfast burritos; I get back to the house and Kara is in the shower, so I brew some coffee and throw the burritos in the oven to keep them warm. When she finally emerges, she has a huge smile on her face. I swear I was a snowman in summer because I melted right then and there. We sat down, had breakfast, joked and had a great time. When it came time for me to leave she stopped me with a kiss.

“I could get used to this you know.” she smiled.

“Looks like I need to learn how to make the perfect breakfast burrito then, so I do go broke.” I dodge her playful punch and give her another kiss. “See you later?”

“Yep!” And we both take off. Her in her BMW and me on my Penny skateboard. 

~~~~~

I get to the shop and Nico hits me with a devilish grin.

“I already know what you’re going to say. Here are my answers: maybe, yes, yes, multiple times, and no.”

“Damn. You know me too well. Well, I’m glad you had fun last night.”

“Don’t forget it buddy and thanks. How close are you to being ready for wires? I’m taking my car to Reggie soon, so if you’re ready we can load up both.”

“Yeah I’m ready. Let’s do it.”

We get the cars loaded up and Nico heads to work. After I drop off the cars, I head back home to start work of my own. Being a marketing consultant for a pretty big firm, I have the liberty of working from home, the shop, or even the road if need be. It’s not the most exciting thing, but it helps with bills and allows me to build a racecar. I make sure to be quiet upon entering the house since Lauren, who is a very popular Youtuber, is more likely than not making a video. Sure enough when I open the door her voice hits my ears and I know to be quiet. I walk past the living room, careful to be quiet as I do so, and into my room to grab my laptop. I retrace my steps and head out onto the patio to enjoy the nice day outside. I throw on my headphones and get to work. A few hours go by and I feel a small hand on my arm so I take my headphones off.

“What’s up little man?”

“Mommy says you need to eat lunch.”

“Alright dude, I’ll be in shortly.”

Lauren transitions back mother mode and allows me a break, knowing that I usually will forget to eat just to get things done. One of the qualities that I definitely love about having her as a housemate. But her son, just like Lauren herself at times, is relentless and stood there the entire time until I got up, the entire time filling me in on how much fun he had at the track yesterday.

“-and then I rode my bike on that track when daddy was done!”

“Really!? That’s cool dude! So you had fun?”

“Yeah. I had a lots of fun!”

That kid is just a whole bunch of joy and energy mashed into a tiny human. It’s great to have him at the track because even when things break and we have a bad day, we can count on William to be having a blast. We walk through the sliding glass door and into the house. “Food is almost ready. Johannes can you clean up the table and set the table?” Lauren calls from the kitchen.

“But mom I don’t wanna!” I joke with her as I walk into the kitchen. Everyone always kids around with Lauren about being the mom of the group which usually gets us some sort of look–this time she just looks at me and rolls her eyes. “Whatcha making? Something delicious? It smells good.”

“Chicken quesadillas with ranch.“ She replied.

“Oooh my favourite,” I exclaimed as my mouth watered.

Lauren plated the quesadillas and cut one up for William, presumably to make it easier for him to eat while I finished setting the table, afterwards the three of us sat down with me across from the mother and her son.

"So, how are you and Kara? Did you guys get back together?” Lauren asked tentatively, sort of like she was walking on eggshells.

“Kara and I are working things out. We talked last night and then some.” I said with a wink. 

I proceeded to stuff a bite of quesadilla into my mouth. “Mmmm! Food. Fso good. Fank yew so much.” I swallowed. I know Lauren hates it when I talk with food in my mouth. After another bite, I ask,“ So what about you and Ansel? How are you two doing?” She sighed. The relationship between Lauren and her boyfriend Ansel seemed a little strained. There were times where things were good and then other times when she just looked exhausted from their relationship. I regretted asking that question, especially when she delayed. She put William’s plate in the sink and helped him wash his hands before sitting down again.

"Ansel and I are alright, I guess,” she returned while looking at her plate, "yesterday was alright, but we had an argument.” She sighs again and ran her hand through her reddish-auburn hair. “He saw I was making notes on the video of the testing from yesterday and he got mad about the notes I made. I pointed out on how he doesn’t listen to me whenever I point out what he does wrong, and I also I pulled the "how-can-I-be-a-good-manger/spotter” card on him.“ Lauren then returns my gaze. "I really hope he does listen to me this time.”

“Yeah he can be quick tempered at times. But I’m sure you know that. Things should pan out for you guys this year especially since you’ll be chasing me and Nico the whole season! If Ansel doesn’t listen to you, then we’re just going to pull ahead.”

"I really hope things pan out. I mean, last year we placed in the top 16 in the first round and the top 8 in the second round, but the other rounds we didn’t even qualify because the idiot didn’t want to listen to me.” Without meaning to it seems I struck a nerve, her words drip with venom.

“Alright, so since you don’t have to prove anything to me, how was the test day yesterday? I mean, you don’t have to tell me since we’re competitors, but you kinda have to tell me since we’re house mates.“ I added a smile to that last bit trying to lighten the tone. We’ve been friends for years so I can tell when she doesn’t want to stay on a topic, and this was one of those times, but I was also a bit curious.  
"Well without telling you too much, test day went well, but I thought I heard something the car made that it wasn’t supposed to make. I was wondering if you could take a look at it and check if he broke something? Please?”

“Yeah I’ll have a look at it. I’m going to go pick my car up tomorrow, so as long as he isn’t at the shop I’ll look. I don’t want him getting annoyed or anything.” I think it’s odd that she wouldn’t bring it up to Ansel herself, but she did say they just got into an argument and I didn’t want to press the issue. The stress was showing on her face. I caught myself staring at her, probably a bit longer than I should have.

“Thanks, Johannes.” She smiled a fake smile. I felt bad for Lauren but I knew she would figure things out. She always does. “Putain!” My thoughts interrupted as Lauren curses in French. “I forgot that Ansel and I were meeting with a sponsor tomorrow. I need to find a baby sitter to watch over William unless you and Nico can watch him for a few hours?”

“Oh you know I love it when you speak French to me.” I said in a sarcastically loving tone. “Yeah I can hang with him for the day. I’m gonna go pick up mine and Nico’s cars so I’m pretty sure that he’ll get a kick out of that. He can help me load up.” At those words, I could visually see the weight of that tiny thing lift off of her shoulders. 

“Thank you, Jo. You don’t know how much it means to me that you watch him. Make sure he does his school work and if he has questions help him to the best to your ability. If there’s something you don’t understand then let him skip the question and I’ll help him with it when I get home.” She smiled. “You already have mine and Ansel’s number to get a hold of us if anything goes wrong. Also make sure you both eat whenever you two get hungry. There’s snacks for him to munch on. I’ll get everything ready for him so you’d just give him the food and snacks whenever he wants them."  
Mom mode, engaged.

“Alright no problem,” I laugh but then I’m serious, “So hey, I’ve got to run but Kara’s coming over for dinner in a few hours. If you see Nico, tell him to  
not make a big deal out of it. He probably won’t but still. As far as you two are concerned, it’s just dinner with my manager.”

“Right. Dinner with your manager who’s your girlfriend. You know the media at the events will have a field day on knowing you two are together.”

“No. Just dinner with my manager. We aren’t officially back together so I’m not going to get my hopes up. She was with that other guy for over a year, so it’s pretty much us starting over. I will say that things are looking up for the future.” I didn’t want to get into this discussion. Whenever I think about Kara being with someone else, I get upset. I just hoped i didn’t show that expression on my face. I flashed a quick smile as I got up. I started walking out to grab my laptop when I heard Lauren ask “Does salmon sound good for dinner tonight? I could cook baked salmon and rice with some corn for the side.”

"Yeah that sounds great! Do I need to pick up anything at the store?” I say as I pass through to my room. 

“There’s a lot of groceries that needs to be bought. I was thinking on going to Costco to buy the needed food.”

“Oh okay. Well in that case I guess I’ll leave you to it. I won’t be anywhere near Costco so I’d have to double back really. Farvel min søte lille croissant!” I said laughing. Norwegian is my native language but ever since we made the move here to California I’ve been speaking less of it. 

“Vous moquez de moi ne sont pas vous?” She shot back in French, but then in English added, “Do you need me to pick anything up from Costco?"  
I hate when she speaks French. I mean, I love it because it sounds great and she makes it sounds even better, but I hate it because I actually have to think when I translate. After a second, I respond but in English this time. "Maybe I am. I can’t think of anything I would need, call Nico though! Au revoir!” I yell as I walk out the door. 

“Well call me if you need anything! And I will call Nico!” She called after me.

It was pretty warm for it being mid-February. The temperature around 85 degrees. It seemed like the perfect day to go to the beach. But I had a few things to pick up and I was on my way to check on the cars. Reggie, my wiring guy, and his crew are amazing. They cleared the entire day to wire up both cars for us so we can go to Willow in 2 days. I get in the truck to back out when I get a call.


	4. Lauren's pov

After Johannes had left I had sent Nico a text to see if he needed anything from Costco. In the meantime, I continued to go through the house to see what was low. Apparently, when you live in a house with four other people the supplies in the house tend to run low within two months or so. After I got the reply that Nico didn’t need anything from Costco I changed into my jeans, grabbed my purse that had my wallet and keys, and headed to my dark blue Toyota RAV 4. I put William in his car seat in the back before hopping into the driver seat and to Costco.

*****

It was close to six in the evening when I had came home to see no one was home. Nico was most likely at work and won’t be home till later, Johannes had said that he will be on the way home, and I have no idea where Ansel was. William was awake so he had helped me with whatever groceries he was able to carry inside the house. It took us a total of fifteen minutes to get everything inside the house and put away. Since it was getting close to six-thirty, I started cooking dinner while William was in the family room watching his cartoons. A few minutes I heard a few familiar voices and William’s voice yelling “Daddy!”

I heard Ansel’s chuckle as his footsteps stopped to most likely pick up the running child. “Hey there little one. What are you up to?” I heard him ask. “What did you and mommy do today?”

I had put some mayonnaise on top of the salmon and pepper before I put the fish in the oven to bake. There was already corn cooking in a pot and rice cooking in the rice cooker. I heard William tell his father on what we did today and I turned around to see Kara and Johannes come into the kitchen with Ansel not too far behind them with William in his arms. “The food will be ready in a bit. Why don’t you guys go wash up and I’ll set the table.” I smiled at them as I had went into mother mode. Johannes had taken Kara to his room to wait for dinner to be ready and Ansel had set William on the counter. “So where did you go today?” I asked Ansel as I stirred the corn so it didn’t burn.

“I went to the shop this morning to check up on the car, then headed into the Gaslamp district to check out some stores and scouted for some potential models for photography pictures for the car.” Ansel had told me before cleaning off the table before setting it. He turned around to get William off the counter and walked over to me. “And I also got you this.”

I watched him pull something out of his pocket and held it out to me. It was a small black velvet box and my heart was beating fast as I stared at the velvet box. I had hoped it wasn’t a wedding ring because I wasn’t ready to get married yet. I knew Ansel and I vaguely had talked about marriage, but it was too soon for us to get married. Especially with the season coming up and racing against our housemates and other drivers, there wouldn’t be  
any time whatsoever to plan a wedding.

“It’s not a wedding ring.” Ansel quickly said to me as he opened the box. “It’s more of a promise ring. One day we will get married, but not now. I already know that you don’t want to get married so young, so this ring will represent that we will get married someday.”  
I stared at the one karat diamond ring in the box before I smelled something slightly burning. I turned off the stove and put the corn in a big serving bowl, setting it on the counter. This wasn’t something I was expecting. Sure, Ansel and I had our ups and downs, but we loved each other. Not to mention we have a kid together, so it makes sense on us being together.

“Lauren please think about this okay? I want to spend my the rest of my life with you.” He told me as he slipped the promise ring on my right hand before he finished setting the table and left to go clean up. I stared at the ring on my right hand before I sighed and finished preparing dinner.

*****

After dinner, everyone had went off to do their own thing. Ansel had took William for his bath, Kara and Johannes had went off doing their own thing, and I had set a plate of food in the oven for Nico since he should be home any minute. I put the leftovers away in the fridge, cleaned the table, and started on the dishes. I took off the ring and put the ring back into the velvet box so it wouldn’t get ruined. In the midst of washing dishes I heard the front door open and close. Nico was home from work. “Welcome home, Nico.” I said to him as he came into the kitchen. “Your dinner is in the oven keeping warm. How was work?”

Nico had came into the kitchen to lean against one of the counters as he told me about work. “Work was Paska! The manager, a kusipää! Paskaa syövä koiranraiskaaja!” I had let out a small giggle as I slowly translated what he had said from Finnish to English. The three of us had been friends for a total of four years and living in the our current house for half a year, since Nico had been living in the house before the three of us moved in. I had went back to washing the dishes.

“Allons-nous commencer à parler nos langues indigènes maintenant?” I asked in French as I continued to wash the dishes. I didn’t have to see Nico’s face to see him trying to translate my French into Finnish in his head before I heard his voice.

“….Only for the bad words.” He hesitated as he finished translating what I said. “Thank you for dinner, Lauren.”

I finished washing whatever dishes there was in the sink and had grabbed the towel to dry my hands, before turning to look at Nico. I gave him a smile as I got his dinner out from the oven. I set the plate on the counter before getting the utensils out for him to use. I was too absorbed into doing other things I had forgotten about the velvet bow that contained the promise ring on the counter. “Well let’s just make sure that we don’t say bad words around William regardless if it’s in English or our native tongues. He’s a smart boy for an almost six year old.”

“Yes, Yes. Not around the William.” Nico had said as his eyes fell on the velvet box before before looking at me. “Being married soon are we? Congratulations.”

I had smiled when Nico had said he wouldn’t mention bad words in any form of languages. When Nico had said his congratulations on getting married soon, my face had fallen slightly. “Err….it’s not a wedding ring.” I told him as I put the box in my pocket. “But thank you.”  
I was feeling slightly uncomfortable with the topic of marriage. “Hey Nico,” I looked at him as I leaned against one of the counters. “Can I ask you a question? Is it bad that I’m not wanting to get married now? I mean, I want to get married, but getting married now before the season starts? Not to mention I’m still young and I’m not even sure if I even want to marry Ansel.” I looked at Nico with my blue-green eyes filled with uneasiness. “Am I a bad person thinking these things?”

Nico had stared at me with a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face. “Too many question, but no. You are not bad. Don’t rush. you have time to marry still.” He said as he gave me a quick smile before returning to his food.

I had a small smile on my face to hear the familiar broken English, but it’s completely understandable because out of the people in the house Nico was the one who hadn’t lived in the States long. Ansel and I had our days where we had broken English trying to figuring out certain words, so we knew on how hard it was to adjust on learning English. I headed to the fridge to get one of the hard ciders out and twisted the cap off.  
“Can I ask you another question?” I looked at him as I hopped up onto one of the counters and sat on the counter across from him.  
He arched an eyebrow at me before nodding to the cider I had in my hand. “Can you get me one please? Then you may ask another question.”  
I had gotten down from the counter to get a hard cider for him. I had set the unopened cider beside him before taking my previous seat. “I don’t want to pry, but have you ever thought about getting married?” I asked curiously.

He had nodded his thanks before twisting off the cap, and took a long sip of his drink, before looking back at me with a shrug. “One day. My mum would have like me to be. Maybe when someone who can tolerate me.”  
I watched him take a drink of the cider after opening it. As I sat on the counter listening to him talk. After a while it was quiet between us with the only noise was utensils hitting porcelain. I was curious about Nico because even though we have been friends for the the past four years, there’s not much we knew about him.

“Have you found someone you like to date?” I asked him as had a small uneasy feeling that the question she asked was overstepping some sort of line that was there. “I’m sorry if the question is too prying. You don’t have to answer.” I said quickly.

He had shook his head before answering me. “No, No one. Well there’s a girl at work, but she is loud.”

I had let out a small giggle. “It seems like most Americans are loud.” I told him, taking a long sip of my drink. “I’m sure you’ll find that someone. Just give it time.”

A few more minutes had passed and I had a empty cider bottle in my hands. I hopped down from the counter to throw the bottle in our recycling bin before I remember what was going on tomorrow. “Oh. Before I forget, Ansel and I will be leaving the house early in the morning to meet with a potential sponsor, so if your not too busy tomorrow can you help Jo out on taking care of William? I know he can be a handful at times.” I gave him the puppy eyes look when I asked this.

He rolled his eyes at me, trying to not let the puppy eyes affect him before he had sighed in defeat. “Yes, yes, I will help William beat on Jo. Good luck with the meeting of the sponsor.” He raised his toward me in a toasting manner.

I had the most biggest grin on my face to had seen Nico roll his eyes and sigh in defeat. Yes! No one can resist the puppy eyes! “Thank you so much, Nico. I owe you and Jo for watching William.” I told him as he wished us luck on meeting with the sponsor. “Thanks.”  
I walked over to him, placing a friendly kiss on the cheek. I was really thankful to have friends like Johannes and Nico to take care of William whenever Ansel and I had to go out to meeting with sponsors.

“You’re welcome.” I heard Nico say as I looked at him as he finished his food. I gave him one last smile before turning in.

“Make sure you wash your dishes before going to sleep on your oversized beanbag chair.” I told him as I shook my head as I headed down the hall to the bedroom I shared with Ansel and William, mumbling under my breath on how someone could sleep on something that wasn’t a bed.


	5. Johannes pov

“I’m here at the shop. Are you coming?”

“Yeah I’m coming! Be patient woman!”

“Fuck you, I’ve been here for like half an hour, asshole.”

“Love you too babe.”

*Click*

After running a few errands and picking up the parts necessary to make my daily drifted S13 run again, I was on my way back to the shop. Kara’s slight impatience got the best of her and she arrived there despite me telling her I was about 45 mins away. When I finally get there she rushes outside and gives me a kiss. We bring everything inside and start what we planned. Soon enough we head back home as Lauren was making a delicious dinner.

—–

After dinner Kara and I retreated to my room for the business side of our relationship. We went of the budget for the upcoming season and she highlighted some of the areas where we can afford to spend extra. Afterwards we turned to watching videos of Long Beach in order to familiarize ourselves with the course and our competitors. With 6 weeks until the first round, Kara wants me to be at my best, so we do anything we can to prepare ourselves. She has me watch helmet cam videos and pretend to drive the track which makes me feel silly.

—–

The next morning, I wake up before Kara and go to get us some breakfast at the restaurant down the street. Yet again Kara is in the shower when I get back. We had a nice breakfast before Kara goes back into my room to take care of some emails. I walk across the house to Lauren and Ansel’s room to find William asleep. It’s 8:17 which means that his parents should be halfway to Los Angeles for their meeting. Being the cool uncle that I am, I let him sleep in today and return to the room that is occupied by Kara so I can go over the notes Lauren left me. When I hear noise from the living room I walk out only to find William curled up on the couch watching some cartoons. After pouring him some cereal, I get the little tyke all cleaned up and ready for the day. Kara and I take turns helping William with his homework and when he’s done we all head to the shop at around 1 in the afternoon.

“I thought Nico was supposed to be here today.” says Kara.

“He texted me this morning that there was a problem at the park so he had to go in.”

Nico’s day job is a park operator at Legoland which he mainly does for fun. Being completely well off from a supreme inheritance of money, he has no reason to work. It leads us to believe that he just does it to ride the attractions all day and so he isn’t sitting around the house all day.  
While Kara and I were working on the car, I set up William on the Xbox in the office. After 3 hours I go to get him to give him a break from the game, but also because we finished the car. I put some fresh tires on it and strap William into the seat.

“Be back in a few minutes babe.” I tell Kara.

“Don’t get caught,” she warns. To which I blow her a kiss and start the car. William gets excited as we pull out of the bay door. After driving around 5 minutes to my secret drifting spot, I make sure William is completely strapped in. I look over at him and say “Don’t tell your mom.” I add a wink, rev the car and dump the clutch. The SR20 screams and bangs off the limiter as I drift around the abandoned parking lot. I run a line that is mirror of the Long Beach track but smaller and William is having a blast. I don’t push too hard as I don’t want to injure the child in the passenger seat, nor do I want to have tire smoke lingering, and I didn’t want to break my car again, of course. After a few runs, we head back. Kara shakes her head but gives me a kiss on the cheek before going to help William out of his seat. “When are we going to Willow?” she asks.

“Faen! I forgot to let Nico know! We’re going in two days.”

“Well do that and watch your mouth!” She responds quickly but I wasn’t paying attention. I sent Nico a quick text as I walked into the shop office to get the truck keys. When I walk back into the shop, I hear Kara’s phone go off. I walk over to it and pick it up and walk it outside to her.

“Why is Ansel texting you? You aren’t giving him secrets are you?” I ask jokingly.

“No of course not! He keeps trying to get me to be his spotter saying I do a better job than Lauren. It’s not going to happen.” She replies to the text and slides the phone in her back pocket.

“Hey can you hang here for a few minutes? I’m going to grab the stacker and some ice cream.”

“Yeah but I’ll have to leave as soon as you get back so I can get ready.” she replies steadily.

“Ok no worries. I’ll be back in a few.”

I get back with the stacker and the ice cream at around 6 pm. In the time I was gone, I had received a text from Nico explaining that he would be home soon to help me load up for our test day. Kara takes off leaving me with William. I lock up and prepare to take him home in my S13. I get him strapped in and head off to the house. I get there pretty quick and decide to have some fun. I pull into the driveway backwards and look at William.  
“Wanna see something cool?” I ask him.

“Yeah!” he giggles.

With his approval I revved the engine and dropped the clutch and stepped on the brake to start roasting the tires in the driveway. I stayed in the burnout for around 15 seconds before stopping and shutting off the car. I hop out and grab William so he doesn’t inhale anymore tire smoke. I lift him onto my shoulders and grab the ice cream and head into the house, both of us suppressing laughter. As soon as we get inside Lauren is waiting with a look of disapproval on her face. I immediately start laughing, not able to hold it any longer, followed by William which in turn changed Lauren’s expression to a smile.

“Hi there my little handsome man. Did you have fun with Uncle Jo today?” she asked the little one as I put him down so he could run over to her. She shot me a look before embracing him in a hug as he nodded and smiled. “Of course he did!” I managed through the residing chuckles. William already gave her his approval but I forgot to warn him about what would happen when he blurted out, “Uncle Jo took me drifting!" I froze, hoping Lauren wouldn’t be too mad.

"Did he now?” She looked over at me before she shrugged. “Well he does live in a house full of drifters so it’s bound to happen." I was able to breathe again. She set her child down before going back to cooking dinner. "Dinner will be ready soon. Jo can you help William clean up for dinner, please?” 

“Yeah of course!” My reply eager. “What are you cooking tonight?" I led William to the bathroom in the hallway to get his hands washed and stand outside so that it’s easier to hear my housemate.

"I’m cooking my famous enchiladas.” Lauren told Johannes as she put the toppings on the dish and popped it into the oven for about twenty minutes. 

“Ansel won’t be home tonight.” She said dryly. She wasn’t looking at me, but I could hear how upset Lauren was. When she finished putting the food in the oven, her expression was neutral, which I knew was her ploy to keep William from asking what was wrong. I knew better. “This may not be the best time, but do you want to talk about it?” I offered with a warm smile; even if she said no a smile goes a long way.  
Lauren had shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it right now, but maybe later.” She told Jo as she had cleaned up the table and set the table.  
“It’s just been a long day today and I’m just tired.”

“I understand.” I give her another smile. “Nico and I are going testing in a couple days. I’m really excited to get behind the wheel of my car. I just hope everything runs alright.” We’re sat at the table while the sounds of William’s cartoons float in from the living room. Lauren looks exhausted, even though I had her son with me all day. She looks at me with her tired eyes and smiles at me which seemed to take a lot of energy to muster up.

“That’s awesome. I know the both of you are dying to be behind the wheel.” She told me as she tied up her hair in a messy bun. “I’m sure everything will be alright. Speaking of testing, the sponsor we met with today…well let’s say before they can actually sponsor us they have to see the car in motion.”

“Oh, right! Well I’m heading back to the shop so I can take a look at the car for you and see what’s wrong. Where’d you hear the noise coming from? 

That would help a lot.” I had forgotten that she wanted me to check out the Genesis. With this potential sponsorship, even though I’m indifferent about Ansel, I wouldn’t not help him or Lauren get it.

She thought for a few seconds. “I’ll have to watch the videos because I can’t remember exactly where it was coming from, but I’ll let you know sometime tonight or early tomorrow.” Lauren explains this to me as the oven timer went off. She had set down a placemat so she can put the hot dish on top of it without messing up the table. Lauren placed the hot dish on the table before going back into the kitchen to get a serving spoon, plates, and cups. “William come over to the table now. Food is ready.” We ate dinner in near silence as I didn’t want to disturb Lauren and her thoughts. William asked questions but I answered them when I could. When dinner was over I cleared the table and drew a bath for the little one. While he was bathing I walked back into the dining area to see Lauren still sitting at the table. “Hey, go lie down. I’ll take care of little Willie. I’ll go look at the car tomorrow in between loading up the trailer.”

“Are you sure? I mean you already taken care of William all day.” Lauren tried to stifle a yawn and rubbed her eyes.

“Yes, I’m sure. Go relax. I’ll take care of him. Is there anything special he needs before bed?” I asked. She thought for a second before replying with 

“Not that I can think of. He has his toothless stuff animal he sleeps with, but that’s in the bedroom the three of us share.“ She rubbed her eyes again. 

"When he’s done and dressed, bring him into the bedroom and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Okay. You go lie down and I’ll bring him in in about twenty minutes.” With that she got up and made her way to her room as I walked back into the bathroom where William was playing with his boats in the tub. I got William ready for bed, but not before we had a little bit of ice cream. “This will be out little secret, ok?” I tell him to which he giggles. “Hey,” I say more sternly “seriously, don’t tell your mom about this. I don’t want to get in trouble.” He giggles again but then says “Ok Uncle Jo.” We high five and I take him to brush his teeth. I then lead him into the room where Lauren is on the phone. I wave goodnight but she wasn’t paying attention. I go out to the kitchen and wash the dishes. I grab a beer from the refrigerator and sit on the couch to watch some TV. At around 9:15 pm Nico walks in the door. 

“Bonjour!” I greet him jokingly. We both dislike it when Lauren speaks to us in French  
Nico shot him a quick look before replying “Hei aalio, Hanki minulle yhden?”

“Excuse me? You know where the refrigerator is, get it yourself hestkuk!” I returned to him. “Hvordan var jobben i dag?”

“Work was fine I guess,” Nico replied as he strolled across to the refrigerator and grabbed himself a beer, popping the top and tossing the cap aside. 

"Sai työskennellä kuuma tyttö tänään.“ He said with a wink. Nico and I often speak to each other in our native tongues. I have no idea where Nico learned Norwegian, but I learned Finnish at a young age and since I have been in America much longer than him, our conversations flow better when we don’t speak English.

"Har du gjort noen fremgang med henne ennå?” I chuckled.

“Vähän, Mielestäni hän oli flirttailu.” Again he winked as he plopped down onto the couch.

“You gonna tap that?” I said holding in the laughter that was brewing.

Nico snorted, nearly spilling his beer everywhere. “Jumalauta! Kiitos siitä. Mutta toivottavasti kyllä." I laughed as well but was mindful of Lauren and her sleeping child in the house. "Nice. Hey we’re going testing in two days so you’ll need to take that day off. I’m sure the park won’t burn down.”

“Ok. I’ll tell the boss.” He sipped his beer, attention on the television.  
I yawned. “For sure. Well I’m going to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow sir. God natt.”

“Night man.”

I walked into my bedroom and plugged in my phone. After removing my clothes and getting in bed, I sent a quick text to Kara.

My bed feels so cold without you here. Xo

With that I lie down and the next thing I knew, my phone was ringing and the light from the sun was illuminating my room.


	6. Lauren's pov

It was six in the morning when my alarm had went off. Today was the day that we’re meeting with the sponsor in Los Angeles. I turned off my alarm before I woke Ansel up and made sure William was still asleep. I had gotten up from the bed to get my professional clothes out - which consists of a black button down blouse, dark blue pencil skirt, and black pumps. I gotten dressed, put a little bit of make up on, some jewelry, and tied my dark auburn-red hair into a bun. I looked over at Ansel to see him wearing a white button down, black tie, charcoal dress pants, and dress shoes. It look like we were heading to a job interview or something, but I guess meeting with a potential sponsor counts as an interview right? As we were finishing up getting ready I heard a sleepy voice coming from the bed.

“Mommy? Daddy? Where are you going?” William had asked as he sat up in the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

I walked over to him and sat on the edge of the bed, giving him a smile. “Mommy and daddy have a very important meeting to go today. We’ll be back later, I promise.” I told him as he crawled over to me and sat on my lap. “You will be spending the day with Uncle Johannes and Uncle Nico, if Uncle Nico isn’t too busy.”

William had given me his sleepy smile before laying back down to go back to sleep. I tucked him back into bed before kissing the top of his head and looked at Ansel, looking on something on his phone. I grabbed my purse, throwing my keys, wallet, a compact, and lipstick. I also grabbed a small notebook and a pen for my own sake to remember things. Being a mother of a almost six year old, making sure three grown men eat, and my youtube career doesn’t go under it seems like I have a full plate. Ansel and I had left the bedroom quietly and went into the kitchen to get something to eat on the go. I left both Nico and Johannes a note if they had any trouble on taking care of William or if they needed to get a hold of us in case of emergency to call either of our cell phones. We headed out once we were all set and hit the road.

*~*~*~*

It was an hour after the meeting and honestly the meeting went really well. There was a few concerns they had about the car and on other things we were asking for, but they said before they had agreed to our proposal of becoming our sponsor they would need to see how the car runs before they could sponsor us. Since we were in Little Tokyo, we’ve decided to walk around and window shop. During walking around I saw Ansel brought his phone out and was typing something on his phone before putting it away. I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question it as I continued to walk.  
When it had hit four o’ clock we headed home. We were talking about the meeting and what needed to get done to the car. “Ansel,” I looked at him. “I think we should look at the car again. When we in Willow I thought I heard something in the car that was making a funny noise.”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with the car. The car is running fine and smoothly. Your just paranoid and imagining things.”

“I am not imagining things, Ansel. There was something that was making the car sound weirdly. I thought we should have a look at it or have one of the guys take a look at it. I asked Jo if he-“ I was looking forward until I heard the irritation in Ansel’s voice.

“You did what? Asked Jo? Are you mental?” He cut me off as he gripped the steering wheel, making his knuckles go white. “They are my competition! I can’t have the competition look what’s under the hood of my car.”

I looked at him as I took my hair down from it’s bun and looked at Ansel. “Yes, I know they’re the competition, but they’re our friends. Hell, they helped each other with each others cars, regardless if they’re competitors! That’s what friends do for each other. They help one another out.”  
I saw Ansel shake his head and let out a small chuckle. “They aren’t my friends. They’re yours. I don’t want their help.” He said to me as I stared at him. He wasn’t the man I had fallen in love with years ago. He had changed into someone I didn’t recognize. I mean yes, we had our ups and downs, but all couples have their ups and downs. That’s just something that came with being in a relationship with someone. There was one other time before this that Ansel was acting like a different man and that was when he had cheated on me when I was nineteen. He cheated on me with a girl that I had worked with at a cafe that was half a block away from our flat and when I had days off he would always try to find a way getting out of the flat. By that time William was one and a half and his birthday was coming up. I found out the day of William’s birthday hours before the party, I walked in on them having sex in the guest bedroom.

We went through the party trying to look happy for his family and our closest friends. After the party ended we had cleaned up in silence before putting William to sleep, that was when I had confronted Ansel about walking in on him having sex with my coworker. He had told me that he was stressed and I was not paying any attention to him, so he had to resort on having sex with the first woman he could find. After that incident things between us had been different. “Are you even listening to me?” I heard Ansel ask me as we hit traffic.

“No, I wasn’t. I’m sorry.” I apologized as I looked at him as he sighed and pulled out his phone to check if he had any notifications. When disappointment had crossed his face he put his phone back into his pocket, focusing on the road. I’ve seen that disappointed look once before a long time ago when he was first cheating on me, so seeing that look now is raising a flag in my head. When he wasn’t going to repeat what he was saying before that gave me a chance to test the waters. “Expecting to see a text from someone?” I asked warily, gauging his reaction.

He quickly shot me a look with a bit of panic in his eyes, but that panic look was gone in a blink of an eye. He quickly looked back at the road when we had finally gotten passed the accident that was causing all the traffic and was most likely thinking about something. “I-I have no clue what your talking about.” He stuttered a bit as he drove. I watched him closely as he got a little fidgety, he doesn’t make any eye contact with me, and little beads of sweat started to form. “Wh-What makes you ask i-if I was expecting a text from someone?”

I shook my head as I looked out the passenger window. “No reason.” I told him, letting the subject drop. I was already tired from waking up at a super early time this morning, getting to the meeting on time, and the little argument from earlier. I just wanted to go home and cook dinner. Ansel’s phone had went off and he put his ear phone in, answering the call. I leaned back into my seat and closed my eyes as I tuned out his voice. A few minutes later Ansel had told me he wasn’t going to be home tonight, so he was just going to drop me off and head out. I honestly didn’t care anymore.

*~*~*~*

It was a little after six in the evening when I had started making my famous enchiladas and when I was assembling the enchiladas into the dish I had heard someone pull up into the driveway, doing a burnout for a few seconds. I quickly washed and dried my hands when Johanne had came into the house with William on his shoulders and ice cream in a plastic bag in his hand. I had a disappointed look on my face as I stood there looking straight at Jo, who immediately started laughing and I looked at my son. My disappointed look had turned into a smile as I crouched down with my arms stretched out wide to give him a hug. When Jo had put William down he ran straight into my arms and I wrapped them around him, picking him up.  
“Hi there, my little handsome man. Did you have fun with Uncle Jo today?” I asked him as he nodded when Jo had said he did. Then when William had blurted out that Uncle Jo had took him drifting I looked over at Jo to see what his reaction. “Did he now?” I said before shrugging, letting William down. “He lives in a house full of drifters, so it was bound to happen. Dinner will be ready soon. Do you mind helping William wash up?”

After Johannes had complied with getting William washed up before dinner I had told him what was for dinner, on Ansel not going to be home tonight, and what happened with the sponsor. When Jo heard my tone and saw my face when I said Ansel wasn’t going to be home he asked if I wanted to talk about it. I shook my head, telling him that I might tell him later on what was going on. He had told me that he and Nico will be testing in a few days and was worried on if everything was going to go smoothly. I had reassured him that everything will be fine on testing day. Afterwards Jo had told me that he would take a look at the car tomorrow to see what was causing the weird noise that I heard on testing day, but will have to do it when Ansel wasn’t at the shop. When the oven had went off I had gotten everything set and we ate dinner. Throughout dinner I was in my own head while Johannes was answering any questions my son was asking, and once dinner was over Johannes had taken William to the bathroom for a bath while I still sat at the table thinking about the argument Ansel and I had on the way home.

“Hey, go lie down. I’ll take care of the little Willie. I’ll go look at the car tomorrow in between loading up the trailer.” Johannes had said to me, snapping me back into the present time.

“Are you sure? I mean you already taken care of William all day.” I had told him, stifling a yawn and rubbed my tired eyes. From waking up early this morning to being stuck in traffic to dealing with a bunch of other things on my plate, I felt bad for letting Jo take care of my son when he had taken care of him all day. When he had said he didn’t mind on taking care of him and told me to go relax, he asked if there was anything special he needed before going to bed. I shook my head before telling him what he needed would be in the bedroom that we stayed in. I felt slightly grateful that Johannes was willing to take care of my son a little longer to give me some time to myself and relax. Don’t get me wrong, I love my son unconditionally, but ever since he was born I never had any time to myself. Majority of the time I would be taking care of him with no help from anyone, so I did what I was told. I went into the bedroom and relaxed.

A few minutes later, my phone had went off as I was reading a book I was meaning to start and I looked at the caller id to see it was a long number that I hadn’t recognized. “Allo?” I answered and froze to hear the familiar deep voice from the other line.

“Lauren? Est-ce vous? Commet allez-vous?” He had asked. “Ça fait un moment que nous avons parlé.”

I stared at the wall on the opposite side of the room. It had been a while since I’ve actually heard my older brother’s voice. It’s been exactly seven years since I last talked to him. Our parents had kicked me out when I had gotten pregnant with William and when I tried to ask for help from him, he had just shunned me. So I wonder what he was calling me. “Que voulez-vous, Kieran? Pourquoi m’appelles-tu?”

He was quiet for a little bit before sighing loudly. “Je vous appelle à faire amende honorable . Alyx et je tiens à faire amende honorable et demander votre pardon.” He told me as he mentioned my twin sister, who was older than me by seven minutes.

I heard the door open and William had came in with Jo waving at me, but I was too absorbed into the conversation I was having with my brother. I had tucked William into bed, kissing his head as he clutched to his Toothless plush before closing his eyes. When I was silent for a few moments Kieran had let out a long sigh.

“Lauren s'il vous plaît laissez-nous faire amende honorable après toutes ces années . S'il vous plaît laissez-nous venir vous voir..” He pleaded. If I’ve known my brother in the past to before getting kicked out of the house, he never pleaded or sounded so desparate.

I sighed and sat the desk where my laptop was. If he was sounding this desperate to wanting to repair the relationship between us then I have to see what they had to say. “Très bien. Venez à arrondir 1 de formule dérive et nous y parlons.” I told him as I checked the calendar on when the first round was. It was five to six weeks from today.

“Est-il un moyen de se rencontrer avant?” He asked as I booted up my computer. As I let my computer start up, I had opened up my little planner on everything that needed to get done.

“Non, nous ne pouvons pas répondre avant le premier tour. Je dois beaucoup de sponsors à contacter pour obtenir ce que nous avons besoin avant le premier tour. Il est soit nous rencontrer au premier tour à Long Beach ou pas du tout.” I told him as I logged into my computer. “C'est ton choix.”

After a while, my brother had agreed to meet at Long Beach to repair the relationship between us. I have given him the details for the first round before hanging up the phone. I sat at the desk responding to emails on setting up some meetings with other sponsors, watched some of my subscriptions on YouTube, and editing a video that I had recorded yesterday. When it had hit three in the morning I shut down my computer and headed to bed, wondering on what the upcoming weeks will bring.


	7. Johannes pov

“Guess who’s in town! How’s my favourite brother-in-law?” a bubbly voice greets me. I blink away the sleep in my eyes, let out a big yawn and converse with Kara’s sister, Evaline—Eva for short. She always referred to me as her brother-in-law, even though Kara and I never really talked about any plans to get married. I guess that’s what happens when your little sister likes your boyfriend. We talked for about an hour, catching up while I lie in bed and when we hung up I was a little annoyed to see Kara didn’t text me back. She’s usually awake a few hours earlier than me to deal with sponsors and get everything prepared for the year. I sometimes feel bad that I’m only the driver; there’s a lot that goes on that I feel like there’s much more I could do to help out. I get up and look through my closet for some clothes and stop to look in the mirror. I noticed that I don’t look as dark as I usually do. Spending countless hours at the shop or in my office, I look more like a light mocha. My naturally curly hair is longer than I keep it during the season due to the inconvenience of having to take time to get it cut. Looking at my face, I could do with some sort of shave, but again it’s an inconvenience and I don’t really have anyone to impress. Unless you count my girlfriend but she’s learned to accept my flaws as I have with hers.

After getting ready, I walk through the house and hear Lauren talking, no doubt making one of her videos or on the phone with a sponsor. I write her a note to keep Ansel away from the shop today so I can check out his car. I step outside and yet again forget my sunglasses so I walk back inside and see William standing there wearing them. “Can I go drifting Uncle Jo?” he asks. “Maybe I’ll take you later, but you have to be good for your mom and you have to do your homework okay?” With that he beams up at me. I give him a high five in exchange for my sunglasses and head out the door again. William is standing in the doorway so when I start up the S13 and back out, I make sure to do a little burnout for him. He laughs and closes the door and I head to the shop.

I pull up and immediately curse under my breath. Ansel is there looking at his car. While normally it isn’t a big deal, I made a promise to Lauren and he’ll just delay what I’m meaning to do.

“Hey how’s it going?” I grunt.

“Pretty well and yourself?” He returns with a slight smirk and an upbeat tone. I answer with a yawn and afterwards reply with “I’d rather be sleeping. What are you doing there?”  
“Just giving her a little attention. I want to go practice some more so I’m doing a little maintenance. That’s all. What are you doing here?”

“Loading up. Nico and I are going out to Willow tomorrow so I’m getting everything ready so we can head out tonight.”

After that Ansel’s phone goes off and he looks at me. “I have to take this.” After another glance in my direction he heads outside with his phone.

“He’s so weird.” I mutter to myself.

I walked into my office and started up my computer. I had a pretty big project I need completed for work and I was a little behind. It wouldn’t take too long to get it finished, which is part of the reason I had been slacking. As my computer was starting up, I decide to procrastinate a little more and load up our supply of tires. There’s no telling how many we’d use so I decide to load an even amount; 10 rears and 4 fronts for each of us. That would allow us ample time for some good seat time.

I text Kara and Nico the same message, but separately: _Loaded the tires. 10 rears and 4 fronts. Need to order more._

I head back into the office and work on my project so I can get it sent out. After a few hours I receive a text from Lauren asking if I had eaten. I didn’t but I talked to Kara and she was dropping by with some food. After I finished the project I walk back into the shop and see that Ansel had gone and locked up everything. I go back to the office to grab my phone.

_Hey Lauren, Ansel left the shop but I don’t know when. Is he at home with you?_

As I wait for her reply, I start moving tools and other equipment needed for our test day to the front to be loaded quickly. I wanted to make sure Ansel wasn’t coming back before I took the car out to see what was wrong. My phone goes off in my pocket.

_No, he isn’t here. If he is here then he must’ve came in when I was taking a nap with William._

I walked outside to see if his car was still here and I didn’t see it. It being 6:12 pm, the sun had started its final approach towards the horizon.

_Dritt! I don’t want to take the car out if he’s going to come back. Can you find out where he is for me?_

Almost immediately she replies back: _Let me get up._

As I wait for her to do a sweep of the house, I text Kara asking where she was as I was definitely starting to feel the effects of hunger.

_He isn’t home, but I’m guessing he’s out with his “play things” in town._

This makes me frown. Being one of my best friends, it hurt me to see her in this situation.

_Alright, I’ll check the car now. Are things alright between you?_

_Bzzt!_ Lauren’s response comes through after a few minutes.

_Truthfully no. It just seems like we’re drifting apart, but we’re trying to keep it together for William. He gave me a promise ring a few nights ago._

I respond quickly in.

_Wow. In the event of a split, you get custody of me and Nico. You can do better than him anyways. I’ll hook you up with one of my buddies from back home._

I attempted to cheer her up a bit. It’s something that I do well but as of late and given the current circumstances, I didn’t think my efforts were working.

_Thanks, but I think if we ever split I will be fine on my own. I don’t need a guy to take care of me._

_I know. I offer it as a joke. You have your friends to help you._

_Thanks, Jo. That means a lot._

With that I walk over to Ansel’s car put the steering wheel on the hub and fire it up. Everything sounded fine but I wanted to make sure so I moved it outside so the exhaust fumes didn’t suffocate me. I then called up a friend I made from the local police department.

“Hello?”  
“Hey Steve, how are you?”  
“Good good. How about yourself?”  
“The same. Hey I’m going to be taking one of the cars onto Spring Street. Do you think you can escort me?”  
“Yeah sure. Give me about 5 minutes.”

I’ve known Steve since we moved into San Diego. He’s been one person who’s extremely valuable as a friend and also because of his connections. Being a member of the local PD, Steve can escort me to different areas to allow me to do small shakedowns without having to drive all the way to the track. He gets a kick out of it because it’s some excitement away from his usual patrols.

Steve gets to the shop as I’m locking everything up.

“I thought you were driving the Nissan this year.” He questions, puzzled. “I am, I’m just checking this one out for a friend.” I respond. We hop in the cars and Steve throws his lights on, while I follow. Spring Street is about a 10 minute drive without all the traffic lights stopping us but it is usually deserted after work hours. Steve stops at the entrance to the street to stop traffic coming in as I continue down the street to make sure it’s empty. As I drive the car nothing seemed to be wrong so I wondered whether or not Ansel’s tinkering had fixed any issues. The street has two turns, a left and a right with a parking lot on the right hand side of the road as it continues on making it a pretty nice testing area. I head back towards Steve and whip the car around into a few donuts to warm the tires.

“How long do we have?” I ask when I finish my burnouts.

“About ten minutes. Silvia said she’ll radio me when your time is up.”

“Gotcha!” And I was off. I threw the car into the left hander and then transitioned into the right hander. Almost immediately, the car felt ridiculously stiff and I straightened out. I drove back and I asked Steve to get in. “I need you to stand at this corner and tell me if you hear anything odd!” I shout over the rumble of the V8. I drop him off and go again. I kick the back end of the car out and again on the transition the car started to bind up again but I was ready for it and I drove through it and it loosened up a little. I looped the parking lot and came back to Steve. He explained that he saw sparks coming from the rear when I brought the rear around for the right hand turn. I told him I was going for one more and went back to the start. By this time a few pedestrians who had heard the noise started to gather. I decided to run this one a bit harder to see how big of an issue it was. I launch hard and throw the car sideways. I transition harder than I did the past two runs, utilizing a lot more angle. The car didn’t bind up as much, but I still felt it. Finishing out the run, I picked up my companion and took him back to his patrol car and we headed back to the shop.

“When is your shift over?” I asked him as soon as I put the Genesis away. “It was over about 5 minutes after you called me.” He responded. I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a couple beers. “So that means you have nowhere to go then?” I laugh extending one of the cold beers to him. The rest of the night went on with us talking, joking, and sipping our beers while I loaded everything into the trailer. Steve says his goodbyes and we make a note to catch up after the first round. I grab my phone out of the Genesis to send a text to Lauren and notice that Kara had texted me saying she was on her way. Not more than 5 minutes later she arrives as I’m loading my S15 into the stacker behind Nico’s RX-7.

“I was wondering when you were going to be here!” I exclaim from the underneath the car as I strap it down.

“I got caught up packing. I had to make sure I looked sexy for you, but not too sexy because you may crash” she giggles with a wink.

“Well, I probably won’t be able to keep my eyes off you so you may as well just stand out there naked.” That remark was met with a playful slap to the arm. “You ready to hit the road? Also, did you bring food because I’m starving?”

“I picked up couple of spicy rice bowls for us. I know how much you love those.” Kara calls over her shoulder as she loads her backpack into the truck. She puts her car in the shop and hops in the track as I lock up. For the next 3 and a half hours it’s just us as we make our venture to Willow Springs.

When we reach the 138 highway, I pulled over for some drinks. I woke Kara who was asleep and had her move into the backseat so she could lie down for the remainder of the trip; we were shortly back on the road after topping off the gas tank. As we rolled through Palmdale, I heard my phone go off so I reached for it. When I opened it I saw not only was it Kara’s phone, but she had seven texts from Ansel among two from Nico and a missed call from her sister. I wondered why she had so many texts from Ansel, but I trust her and I’m not the one to go snooping around. I pick up my phone and see that Nico was on his way up as well and was wondering if Kara could be his spotter for the day. I kept driving making a mental note to reply when we got to the track.

We arrive at the track to find closed gates. Not really a surprise seeing as we arrive at 2 am. I park the truck on the side of the road to allow any traffic to pass. I climb into the passenger seat and recline it over Kara’s legs. Off to dreamland I was.

The next thing I knew my ears were being assaulted by a very loud rotary engine. I jump up in my seat and open my eyes. I instantly regretted that decision when the sunlight pierced my irises and forced me to close them again. I grab my sunglasses out of the center console and hop out the truck.

“What the fuck Nico!?” I yell, my heart still racing. I look over to see Kara on the ground laughing, tears streaming down her beautiful face. Nico pulled his car right beside mine and shrugged his shoulders. We finished setting up our pit area when another team showed up. I didn’t exactly know who they were, but they obviously meant business with a trailer as big as ours. Kara grabbed both sets of radios as we both drove onto the open skidpad that is Balcony.

 _“Don’t go yet. Warm your tires, I’m going to set the course up.”_ Kara comes through over the radio. I see her running around with cones and Nico starts doing donuts behind me. Taking the hint, I do the same. After warming the tires, we sit as Kara finishes setting up.

“ _Okay, first Nico, then Jo. Separate runs for now so I can make notes. Conservative until I say otherwise.”_

After a few more seconds I see Nico move his car to the other side of the track. Puzzled, I watch what he’s doing. He takes off but doesn’t drift the first run and I see what Kara did. She made the long beach course as best as she could. When Nico drives back, he lines up again and takes off. This time he drifts. He looked good from my vantage point, but I see him shake his head and then wave me to follow him to the other side. I whip around and line up, just as Kara comes on the radio.

“ _Alright Jo. Same thing as Nico. Drive through 1 st lap and then drift the next. You’re going to hit the right hander, then the transition. I don’t want you too close to the wall and stay away from dirt drops. Go for it.”_

I launch my car as my response. The 2JZ under the hood comes to life as I take it all the way to 3rd gear. I finish my drive through the course. I saw what she meant about no dirt drops; the transition from track to dirt was rough so something can easily bend or break. The next lap, I launch hard attempting to get as much traction out of my tires and as much speed as possible. I initiate into the turn and realize that I misjudged it a bit. I hit a cone but continued on. I transition and do what Kara said and kept the car off the wall. Afterwards she comes on the radio, “ _Nice run. Enter about 10 feet earlier next run.”_

For the next few runs, Nico and I ran just like that one at a time until it came to change tires. We head in and see the other team has unloaded their car. It’s a yellow BMW E36. Just driving by it looked like a pretty serious build and I was excited to see it out on track. The driver, a blonde girl with tan skin, puts her helmet on and hops in. When she fired up the car, it was apparent that her car was very serious. The rumble of the LS V8 was enough to grab anyone’s attention. We changed tires and walked over to the fence to watch her run. It was clear she had a lot of power from the amount of smoke being put out and by how she was driving it. Nico and I shared a look what basically said we aren’t scared. When it was our turn back on track, we turned up the heat a bit. I removed my bumpers in preparation to get close to the wall. Going a little harder, I instantly praised myself on putting in the coil overs on my rear bash bar. I tapped the wall but I was unaffected as the coils just absorbed the contact. After that we switched the layout to be a little longer to allow me and Nico some tandem practice.

When we were all done, we went over and talked with the other team as the sun was going down. The other driver, Reynna, was pretty cool and very attractive. Someone I could see myself dating if I was not in a relationship. But outside of that, her and her team were very nice and competitive from what I could tell in our conversation. The BMW we found was powered by an LS3 with nitrous and put down 900 horsepower and 875 torque. Hearing this, Nico and I shared another look. We exchanged contact information and said our goodbyes and loaded up our cars as they took off. On the road back home we go, but not before stopping at Foster’s Freeze for burgers. As we headed home, Kara and I went over our test day. We both agreed that it was an extremely successful day. Kara’s phone started buzzing and she quickly answered it.

“Hey. Yeah we’re on our way back now. I’ll call you when we get back. Okay, love you too. Bye.”

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Just my mom. She didn’t hear from me all day. You know how mothers are.”

“Yeah true.” I chuckled.

“So, Reynna is very pretty isn’t she?” Kara said.

“Uhhh sure. She’s pretty cool too. Definitely one to watch out for.”

“I’m sure you’ll be watching her.” Kara said accusingly.

“What does that mean?” I retort.

“It means that I saw you looking at her a certain way. I didn’t like it. And you were all too eager to get her phone number too.” I could tell that she was getting upset, so I tried to defuse the situation.

“Look, she’s a competitor but also someone who could help us down the line. Also she’s cool and her team is cool. It’s not like I’m going to cheat on you.”

“And how do I know that Jo? How can I be so sure you won’t just run off with her?”

“Where is this coming from? Why would you accuse me of cheating? What, you don’t trust me?” I was starting to get upset at this point.

“You were flirting with her right in front of me Jo!” Kara was yelling at this point. “It’s like I wasn’t even there!”

I couldn’t believe I was having this argument. I never once thought of cheating on anyone, let alone the woman sitting beside me. The woman I had deeper feelings for than anyone else in the world, and she thought I was flirting with someone else.

“Kara, you’re being ridiculous right now! I introduced you to her as my girlfriend. Do you really think that I would blatantly flirt with someone else, especially after introducing you as my girlfriend!?”

“Well what about Lauren? I see you look at her differently sometimes and you’re always flirting with her in front of me!”

“Are you listening to yourself right now? Lauren is my best friend. Yes we flirt back and forth at times, but that’s how our friendship is. Nico and I do the same. You’re being irrational right now.”

“I’m starting to think that us getting back together was a mistake. Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this Jo, you still put everything ahead of me. A few breakfasts and dinners doesn’t make up for you neglecting me and now flirting with another girl.”

We rode in silence as I took some time to collect my thoughts. I didn’t want to say something I would later regret, but I also wanted to put her at ease.

“Kara, I’m sorry but you know what it’s like when the season is coming up. I’m not making any excuses but it is how it is. Any free time I have I’m devoting to you. I try to invite you and include you in as much as possible. But I also don’t want you to be bored out of your mind as we work on the cars. If you’d rather be there then come by. I would love for you to be there. As for Reynna, she’s just another driver. She’s not a threat to you or anything.”

“I don’t know. I have to think about what I want and where we go from here.” She said quietly

We rode in silence for the rest of the trip. Kara’s phone lighting up every so often as she sent and received text messages. I was left alone with my thoughts which kept circling around why she would make such a claim against me.

We got back to the shop at around 1 in the morning. Kara grabbed her stuff and put it in her car. I walked over and she simply said, “I’m sorry about earlier. I’m just a little jealous.” We hugged and she gave me a kiss. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” I didn’t say a word, still wondering how that even took place. Nico and I unloaded the cars, parked them in the shop, locked up and went home.

My mind still abuzz, I tried to go to sleep, but there was still a nagging concern that needed to be addressed.


	8. Lauren pov

It was early morning when I had woken up. Today was going to be a semi busy day only because I need to talk to a few more sponsors, send out emails, and figure out what I’m going to do when my siblings come to the first round. I will worry about the last thing later, but for now I need to cook breakfast for whoever is home. William was already awake and watching his cartoons. I cooked pancakes for us and we both ate in silence with William’s cartoons playing in the background. I already knew Ansel wasn’t home because he didn’t come home last night, Nico was most likely at work or doing something else, and Johannes was still asleep in his room.

After breakfast I washed the dishes and had started on sending out emails with proposals, hoping that they would sponsor us as I did some follow up calls with the current ones we had. After I had gotten all my phone calls and emails done I checked over my son’s work before we ate lunch. It was mid afternoon when we finished lunch so William and I decided to take a nap. When I had woken up from the nap it was already six ‘o clock. I regretted taking a longer nap than was needed because I knew that my son and I weren’t going to go to bed anytime soon.

I woke William up before getting started on dinner and that was when my phone had gone went off with a text. It was a text from Jo.

_Hey Lauren, Ansel left the shop but I don’t know when. Is he at home with you?_

I reread the text as I laid in bed with my son. I knew I had to get dinner started, but I was thinking on what was quick and easy to make. “What do you want for dinner little man?” I asked William as I sat up before rereading the text again. My son had thought about what he wanted for dinner and he had smiled at me. “Macaroni and cheese!” I nodded as I replied to Jo.

No, he isn’t here. If he is here then he must’ve come in when I was taking a nap with William.

As I waited for Jo to reply back I listened to hear if there was any movement in the house, but so far it was quiet. My phone had buzzed in my hand and I looked at the message.

_Dritt! I don’t want to take the car out if he’s going to come back. Can you find out where he is for me?_

I sighed before I replied quickly: Let me get up.

I had gotten up from the bed with my son and he went straight to the tv to watch whatever cartoons were on in this hour while I had checked the whole the house to see where Ansel was. Since we lived in a three bedroom and two and a half bath house it shouldn’t be that hard to find a six foot plus man. When Ansel was nowhere to be found in the house I texted Jo back. _He isn’t home, but I’m guessing he’s out with his “play things” in town._

I made a face when I thought about Ansel and his habits. I already had my suspicions on him cheating on me with someone, but I don’t know who. Whatever, I didn’t care at all if he was cheating on me. He’s done it once in the past. What was that saying? Cheat on me once, shame on me. Cheat on me twice, shame on you. I believe that’s how the saying went. Okay, maybe I did care just a little bit. We do have a kid together - even if it was an accidental pregnancy. I already knew that my roommates didn’t like Ansel, but they’re tolerating him because he’s dating me. I, on the other hand, still love him even though he can be a total tool sometimes, but we’ve been together off and on ever since I was seventeen.

 _All right. I’ll check the car now. Are things okay between you two?_ He had asked me through text I as I walked back into the kitchen to get dinner started for both William and I.

 _Truthfully no. It just seems like we’re drifting apart, but we’re trying to keep it together for William. He gave me a promise ring a few nights ago._ I replied to him quickly, dropping the promise ring bomb. I had told Nico about the promise ring - well he had seen the ring - but overall I felt a little bad for not telling Jo sooner.

Johannes had replied back quickly as the water had begun to boil.

_Wow. In the event of a split, you get custody of me and Nico. You can do better than him anyway. I’ll hook you up with one of my buddies from back home._

I knew he was trying his best to cheer me up, but honestly I haven’t really thought ahead if Ansel and I did break up. Unfortunately, Jo attempt to cheer me up didn’t do its justice like it would usually does. _Thanks, but I think if we ever split I would be fine on my own. I don’t need a guy to take care of me._

I had poured the macaroni into the boiling pot and had occasionally stirred so it wouldn’t stick to the bottom. My phone went off with another reply from Jo. _I know. I offer it as a joke. You have your friends to help you._

I had smiled reading that text. I was very glad to have great friends like Nico and Johannes to help me with taking care of my son if things between Ansel and I got ugly. I was very lucky to have met the both of them back in France when i did.

_Thanks, Jo. That means a lot._

After telling him that I knew he was going to take the Genesis out to see what’s wrong with the car and won’t be home till tomorrow night after spending the majority of tomorrow testing. Later on after dinner Ansel had come home for a little bit to shower and change before repacking his bag. It was already a little past nine in the evening and William had fallen asleep on the couch, watching his cartoons. I had turned off the tv before picking him up and carried him into the bedroom to tuck him into bed. I looked at Ansel to see he was packing a few extra set of clothes and his camera things into the camera bag. “Where are you going?”

Ansel looked at me briefly before finishing up his packing. “You remember Neil right? Well, he’s in town visiting with some of his mates, so I was going to spend the night in his hotel room before he, his mates, and I go on his bachelor party tomorrow. I won’t be back for a couple of days.” He looked at the velvet box that contained the promise ring and I saw a pained look on his face before he composed himself. “Have you thought about what I asked?” He asked me as he turned to look at me.

There was something in his eyes that were uncertain about something, but I honestly don’t know what goes on in that head of his, but I honestly didn’t know what to think of him. Why would he give me a promise ring - a ring that one day we will be married - and then cheat on me with God-knows-who the day after. Did I really want to spend the rest of my life with him? “No, I haven’t thought about it…” I told him as I walked over to the dresser to pick up the velvet box and put it in the dresser. “Kieran called last night. He and Alyx want to make amends.” I turned to gauge his reaction to the news.

If he was freaking out he wasn’t showing it. “Oh really? And what are you going to do?” He asked me, cautiously. I shook my head and shrugged. Of course Ansel knew how my family had treated me because he was there for me when they had shut me out and basically had disowned me. Ansel’s mom, sister, and him were basically my family and had supported me when I was going through the pregnancy. I heard a soft thump and then saw Ansel in front of me. “Hey, whatever you decide to go through you would know it’s the right thing to do.”

I gave him a small smile before he had gotten up and kissed the top of my head, before he had left. A few hours had passed and I couldn’t sleep at all. It was too quiet in the house because Nico and Johannes were up at Willow for testing, and Ansel was gone with his mates, leaving William and I home. I decided since I couldn’t really sleep, I worked on editing some of my videos so I could post them on schedule.

~*~*~*~

The next day wasn’t too busy since my best friends were out testing their cars, Ansel having fun, while I’m here at home editing videos and making sure William does his work. When it had hit lunch time the both of us were bored and so I decide that we needed to get out of the house. “Hey William,” I looked at my son beside me at the table. “How about we go out and have some fun?”

“Yeah! What are we going to do mommy?” He asked me as I saved my stuff on the computer and then backed them up onto my external hard drive just in case something happens.

“We’re going to go drifting.” I told him as everything was saved and I had put my laptop on my desk, my son being my shadow. I could feel my son’s excitement from where I was standing and I looked over at him to see he was beaming. “We gotta see what’s wrong with daddy’s car so I could fix it and then take it out.”

He nodded as I took my phone out as I sent a quick text to Jo to find out what was wrong with the Hyundai.

_Hey Jo, what’s the status on the Gen? Find out what’s wrong with it?_

As I waited for Jo’s reply, I changed into something comfy that wouldn’t be too hard to drift in. It’s been a while since I’ve drifted and the last time I remember drifting was five years ago before I had met Nico and Jo. This was something that they didn’t know about me. Yet. I know sooner or later they’ll find out that I know how to drift, fix the car, and figure out what was wrong. My phone buzzed and I read his reply.

_Yeah I took it out and it kept binding up in the rear. Apparently there were sparks too. Something may not be fitting right._

I thought on what might be the cause of the sparks. It might be one of the axles in the rear, but I won’t know for sure until I take a look at it.

 _I’ll check the rear to see what’s not fitting right._ I texted Jo back and gotten a reply back in a few minutes.

_Okay, if you find something let me know and I may be able to fix it in secret._

I was grateful that my best friend is willing to fix the car for me if something was wrong with it. I love my best friends. _Haha okay. I’ll give you a heads up._

After sending that text, I dressed into something comfy that’s easy to move around in and I packed my bag with the usual; keys, phone, and wallet. In a separate bag I packed things that would keep my son busy while I worked on the car; coloring books, crayons, his favorite cartoons that were on dvd, and snacks. After getting everything together we got inside my car and made our way to the shop. When we arrived at the shop we headed to my office near the back of the shop and got my son settled in. We were very lucky that the three of us were able to get this office to accommodate the three of us. After I had made sure William was all nice and settled in with his cartoons and coloring books before walking over to him, crouching down.

“William,” I said his name as he began to color in the first coloring book. “I need you to stay in mommy’s office while I work on daddy’s car okay?” He had nodded as he kept coloring and then watched his cartoons. I did my last minute check to make sure he was okay, kissing him on top of his head before I left my office to check the car to see what was causing the sparks and binding. Unfortunately, when Ansel was here earlier he didn’t put the car on the lift, so it took me a couple minutes to find the keys to the Genesis and get it off the ground. When the car was on the lift I went to the rear to figure out what caused the sparks as well as the binding. I stood there for a few minutes before I saw one of the axles pushing out the brake rotor, keeping the calipers from closing around the rotor completely. I fixed it by installing a spacer ring in front of the axle before reconnecting it back to the brake rotor.

“Now to figure out what’s causing the binding.” I mumbled to myself as I saw what was causing the binding. One of the stabilizer bars was rubbing against the axle. I compared the one in the front to the one in the rear and noticed that the rear one was a bit thicker. The rear stabilizer bar needed to be replaced. Let’s just hope there’s a spare one here in the shop. Fortunately, there was a spare and so I got to work switching them out. Hopefully what I did would fix the problems that the car was having. I did one last check to make sure everything was connected to the right places and then took the car off the lift.

I headed back to the office as I wiped the grease off my hands onto one of the rags we had laying around and crouched down next to William. “Hey little one,” he turned his head towards me, his eyes were green with little specks of hazel and blue. “ready to take daddy’s car out for some fun?”

When I had asked him that question his eyes had lit up like lights on a Christmas tree. He nodded furiously before we packed up his things. It was getting close late afternoon and I simply hoped that the place where I want to take William drifting was empty. I backed the Genesis out of the bay and put my car inside the shop. We put William’s backpack into my car and I got my license out from my wallet as I put it in a hidden compartment in my jacket. I locked up the shop before buckling up the harness on my son, double checking everything to make sure he’ll be safe. Once I made sure he was all buckled in, I went to the drivers seat and buckled myself in as I took the car out for a little fun.

I drove to an empty parking lot that wasn’t too far from the shop, but the area had some nearby houses. We were very lucky that the cops weren’t called on us whenever we come here. Ansel and I had found this place one day when we wanted to take the car for a little spin. The ground was already marked up from previous runs we did in the past. I warmed up the tires before I actually did donuts. William was screaming out of pure excitement and I tried some turns, mimicking one of the tracks. After a few minutes of fun, I drove back to the shop and was smiling on the way back because it had been so long since I was behind the wheel of the car. When I had pulled up to the shop I saw a bright red cherry F-150 truck in front of the shop and a tall, young woman was leaning against the truck. The huge grin on my face grew even wider after I had switched the cars, got my son out of the car, I stood at the garage door with my son at my side when the woman had walked over to us. I never thought I would see this woman ever again.


	9. Johannes pov

When I woke up, I had 7 text messages and 4 missed calls. Almost all of them from Kara. She needed to speak to me as soon as possible but I decided to hold off on that. The one text that caught my eye was from Reynna. I had just met her yesterday at the track and we exchanged contact info. It was also the spark that ignited the argument between myself and Kara on the way home. I opened the text message which said:

_Hey Johannes, it’s Reynna. I was hoping I could convince you to come to Willow for another practice day. I want to do some tandem with you :]_

Harmless. But for some reason I felt guilty considering it. I decided I would talk to Kara and bring it up. If she was for it, then cool. If not, then I’d have to decline. I got out of bed and picked up the phone to call my girlfriend. I looked at her text messages first and immediately jumped up. We were getting our anti lag for free. I don’t know how she managed it, but she did. All I have to do is drop the car off and everything will be taken care of. I called Kara and she explained everything to me since I still wasn’t sure about everything. Apparently we’re getting an entirely new engine management system that will trigger the anti-lag and a new exhaust manifold and exhaust system to handle the stress of the system. I was excited because the people doing the work have ran multiple rally cars and had success with all of them. My 2JZ was going to sound like the 4th of July.

In my excitement, I ran through the house in search of my friends to tell them the good news. I found Lauren first.

“Lauren! I’m getting anti-lag! I’m going to sound like fireworks!” I laugh. Her eyes lit up in excitement and then she gave me a look as she replied, “That’s rad! Are you putting the anti-lag on your drift car or the street car? ‘Cause I have a feeling you’re going to do both.”

I thought for a second because I would like it on the street car, but I don’t want the city calling the cops on me. “Just the race car. We’re getting everything for free! But the work is going to take a week at least. I’m going to make bang bang noises!” I whoop as I punch the air. The excitement was coursing through my body like an electric current. I felt on top of the world.

“That’s awesome! So the Gen is all fixed up.” Lauren says keeping the subject on our cars.

“Oh really?” I reply smugly, “Ansel stopped being stubborn and let you tell him it was broken?”

“Not exactly.” She looks away. “He doesn’t know what was broken was fixed.”

I look at her puzzled for a moment. “What, did you fix it yourself?” I asked still puzzled.

She looked back at me with her piercing yet soft bluish-green eyes. “Yes. There’s something I need to tell you and Nico.” She looked as though she was going

“Well what is it, and where is Nico?”

“I know how to drift and fix cars? I didn’t tell you this because I actually haven’t drifted in years. I stopped drifting a year before I met you and Nico. And he’s most likely at work.” She said this tentatively, as if trying to gauge my reaction.

“Uh huh. And you kept this a secret from us why!? Do you understand how much fun we could have? Gosh Lauren, you’re so selfish sometimes!” I playfully stick my tongue out at her and she giggles.

“I didn’t know how you and Nico would handle that I know how to drift and fix cars.”

I playfully pretended to be in thought for a second before my reply. “We would probably just go drifting all the time! We can have threesomes!” I pause for a second and after realizing what I just said my eyes widen. “Tandems, I mean!” Lauren shakes her head and laughs at me. “Sure. Let me build my own drift car and we can have all the threesomes you want.” I throw my head back with laughter but when I look back at her, she had a more serious look on her face. “There’s another thing I should tell you.”

“Look, if you want to have the other kind of threesome, we have to be careful. I have a girlfriend.”

“And I have a fiancé who’s cheating on me,” Lauren returns in a lowered voice, “but that’s not what I wanted to tell you. I have a twin sister and an older brother. They’re coming to the first round in Long Beach.”

At the mention of Ansel cheating on her, my mood instantly changed. Instead of happy and playful, I was now angry at the son of a bitch who was having an affair behind my best friend’s back. “Hellig dritt! That’s a whole lot of shit going down. You sure that jævla drittsekk is cheating on you? And you have siblings?” I made sure to curse only in Norwegian and to keep my voice down as William was in the room over watching television.

“Don’t worry, I have it handled. And yes, I have siblings. I did come from a family, Jo. But they disowned me when I got pregnant.” She said with a mildly sarcastic undertone. I disregarded that and pressed on. “That’s shitty. You know we both have your back. If you need us, we’re here.” At that, Lauren gave a slight smile. “I know. Hopefully I’ll be able to find out who he’s talking to.”

“We’ll find out in due time. And when we do, I’ll break his legs.” I flash an evil smile at her.

“Not if I break them first. But I don’t think that’s a good idea because William loves his father.” Lauren sighed.

“We won’t kill him. Just make it a bit tough for him to get around to see his slut.” Even though I was trying to make light of the situation, I was still angry at the asshole.

Lauren sighed again. “That will be a sight to see. I honestly don’t know why I’m still dating him in the first place. He’s done this before.”

“I’m sorry. You deserve better.”

“Thanks Jo. It means a lot to know you care. I just don’t know how William would take it to know his daddy is cheating on mommy, or if he would ever love me again.”

I reach out and pull her into a hug. “He’ll most definitely still love you.” I give her a reassuring smile that she returns as a tear slides down her cheek.

~* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Over the next few days there wasn’t a lot of work to be done to the car by me so I made sure to finish the projects that needed to be finished for work. It hasn’t been easy maintaining this job with everything that needed to be done for my upcoming drift season. Work seemed to pile on as clients who were happy with my work were referring me to their associates. I wasn’t complaining, more business meant more money. But I still had a relationship I had to focus on saving. Kara had been working hard too. Without her, I would not be ready for this season and I would have had to back out. I decided that I would surprise her with a trip to the beach. The beach is pretty close, but since we’re so busy, we haven’t had time to really enjoy it.

The only thing I told her was that we would spend the day together as to not give the surprise away. I went all out packing sandwiches and drinks as well as some of her favourite snacks. I drove over to her place at around 9 am in my S13 to pick her up and noticed a Challenger in the same shade of red that Ansel drives down the street. I don’t understand what he sees in that car, it’s so big and bulky and red really accentuates its size. I go up and knock on the door to which Jenny, Kara’s roommate, answered the door. She greeted me with a smile, let me in, and went to get my girlfriend. When Jenny disappeared I received another text from Reynna.

_Hey I don’t know if you got my text earlier, but I was planning on a test day next weekend if you can make it._

I thought about the work that needed to be done to the car and figured I’d have it back in time. I answered back as Kara came out of her room in her pink bikini.

_I’m up for it. I’m having work done to the car so I’ll let you know!_

“Who’s that?” Kara asked. I thought about being up front and honest with her, like I always have, but decided against it. “It was Lauren. She was asking when our next test day was. She may want to have Ansel come out too.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t think that’s a good idea. He may be your roommate, but he’s also our competition.”

“Yeah, I know. Between you and me, I’m not too fond of him either.” My phone buzzed again. Another text from Reynna.

_Great! Hope to see you there :]_

I knew it was harmless, but I didn’t want to raise the alarms with Kara. I put my phone in my pocket and turned to her, “You ready for some sun?” I say with a smile.

“Of course! Let’s go!” And she bounced her way to the car. We hit the road towards La Jolla and a spot that I found that’s not necessarily secluded, but is definitely a less frequented area. We unloaded and set up a little spot for us close to the water, but well enough back for when the tides rose in the evening. The weather was nice and sunny, warm enough to dry off from being in the water but not too hot to the point of sweating and a light breeze. We had a great day with each other getting some sun, swimming, and enjoying each other’s company. I reveled in her company with her athletic body, tan skin, light brown eyes and jet black hair. Physically, she’s a 15 out of 10 in my book, and with her personality lets makes that a 30. She’s everything I could every ask for.

When it started cooling down, we donned sweatpants and hoodies and sat snuggled watching the sunset. That’s when I made my next move. “Stay right here,” I said. I ran to the car and opened the trunk. Inside I had a cooler that I hadn’t taken out and inside a bottle of champagne was chilling in mostly melted ice. 

The next morning I awoke to the smell of coffee and a slight hint of lavender, the smell of Kara’s bedroom, and stirred accordingly. As I opened my eyes, Kara had a cup under my nose and was stifling giggles.

“Wakey wakey sleepy head.” She laughed.

We were in the middle a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast that she prepared when her roommates walked out.

“Make any more noise and you’ll wake the entire block. Jeez!” Jenny laughed to which Kara immediately looked straight at her plate and stifled more giggles. Jenny’s girlfriend, Cynthia, gave me a thumbs up and a wink before turning and grabbing Jenny’s butt while staring at me. This made everyone laugh and also made Kara, who was sipping her coffee at the time, start choking. When everyone stopped laughing Cynthia said in a seductive voice, “I guess we need to be louder, don’t we babe? Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.”

We had some great laughs over the next hour before Kara and I took a shower and prepared for the day ahead of us. We were going to spend another day together. We went to the mall and then up to K1 for a little indoor karting, something Kara enjoys very much. I spent the night at Kara’s house again and awoke to another steaming cup of coffee. After brushing our teeth, we laid in her bed and cuddled watching Lilo and Stitch. 24 years old and she’s still enthralled by this movie. I find it extremely cute. Admittedly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to the movie which made Kara chuckle. “Really? You’re excited now? Lilo just got taken!”

“I’m sorry! I can’t control it!” I laugh. We finish watching the movie and I kiss her goodbye.

“Thank you for this weekend Jo. You’re amazing!” She smiled with that heart melting smile she has and a twinkle in her eye.

“It was my pleasure.” I smile. We kiss again and I was off on the 35 minute drive back home.

~* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

It was Wednesday, March 11th when we got the car back with our anti-lag installed. I was happy to be able to drive my baby again and also thought of a little prank I could play on Nico. I asked Lauren to park on the street and I street drove the S15 over to the house. Since, Nico’s room is in the front of the house I decided that I would notify him, and our neighbours in the process, that I have anti-lag now. With the S15 parked as close to Nico’s open window as possible, I started her up and revved it. As soon as I hit the limiter I got off and the bang was incredible. So much so that I did it a few more times. Afterwards, I went and parked the S15 in the garage. Nico came out and just glared at me which sent me into a fit of laughter.

“Anti-lag?” He simply asked. I couldn’t respond as I was still trying to get air into my lungs so I just nodded. He then walked back into the house, clearly not impressed with my antics. Later that evening I drove the S15 back to the shop and locked up. With a month to go before the start of the season, it’s crunch time and now seat time is more important than ever. Kara had put in our tire order after the last time we went testing so we were all stocked up for this weekend. I notified Reynna that we would be there. I also let it slip to Lauren in case she wanted to get Ansel up there. Nico had already loaded up the FD because driving is the only thing that really motivates him. It was going to be a great day of drifting and hanging out with friends, something I’m always down for. Kara won’t like it but I hold back during test days with friends to hide what I’m capable of. Nico is the only driver who knows how good I really am. When we drove in Europe, he pushed me harder than anyone ever has so in terms of competition, he’s the only threat I see.

Friday came as slowly as possible with the anticipation to drive my race car quickly building with each passing moment. But when I woke up Friday morning, I was ready. I got to the shop and started going through my checklist to get everything ready. I had a project for work started, but I wasn’t worried about it. It was basic stuff so I could put it off until after testing. I loaded up the S15 after a few donuts and drove to Kara’s place. I parked the truck in front of her house and we took off in her BMW to K1 again. A little bit of fun before we have an important test day. After karting, we stopped for dinner at a small burger place that we frequent whenever I stay over. After that we hit the road. When we got to Willow it was about 8:00 pm. We drove up to Balcony and unloaded the cars so we could sleep in the trailer this time. I blew up the air mattress and we slept cuddled together. Kara was out like a light soon after lying down, but I had trouble falling asleep. My body buzzed with anticipation when I heard a truck pull up.


	10. Side chapter: Kara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Kara's pov as you can probably tell. On tumblr we had a side chapter to take a little break while I had worked on chapter 10 at the time. So I hope you enjoy this side chapter!

These last few days have been stressful. Setting up our schedule for this year has been hectic as well as finalizing a few contracts with sponsors. Jo wants to hit a few laid back events to hang with fans, grassroots drifters, and to get more seat time; I had him come up with a list of what events he wants to hit but we don’t have enough time to do a lot of them. We also need a media person or group so I have been searching for that as well. It been keeping me busy which is exactly what I need. I haven’t talked to him all day and it’s driving me crazy. Well, we spoke briefly but that was about the race car. The fact that my own insecurities may have cause a rift in my relationship with Johannes is why I need a distraction. I freaked out when I saw Reynna clearly flirting with him and trying to get closer to him when I was right there. I wasn’t mad at him, I was mad at her. I don’t like her but I took it out on him and I shouldn’t have.

I moved my hair out of my face and sighed deeply. Looking out the window I remember there was a silver lining and that was that the car was getting a nice upgrade plus our test session went extremely well. I should be happy about that at least. I sighed and got up from my desk. After being on the phone for the past two hours. I needed a break. Grabbing my phone, I left my room and saw my two roommates, Jenny and Cynthia, making out on the couch. “Get a room you two!” I chortle at them. Cynthia’s pale hand unravels itself from Jenny’s red hair and flips me off all while her face stays firmly planted to her partner’s. As I walk towards the door, Jenny breaks contact and turns around to face me. “Technically we are in a room bitch. Just because you haven’t been laid in a few days, doesn’t mean you have to take it out on us. Where are you going?”

“Well for your information, I’m going to the clinic because I’m out and then I’m coming home to get off. You have a problem with that?” I raise an eyebrow at her. She laughs and gets up. Her petite frame saunters over to her purse on the table and grabs some money. “Get us some too. We’re low. Flavour of the month babe.” She walks over and instead of putting the money in my outstretched hand, she put it in my bra and grabbed my breasts.

“You’re such a perv!” I giggle as I slap her hands away. Cynthia just laughed on the couch.

“It’s not my fault you’re hot Kara. Just come over to the dark side. We have cookies and give orgasms. There you go, problem solved.” Jenny giggled.

“I can’t say I haven’t thought about it, you two sure have fun. But Jo is really good at taking care of me.” Anyways, how much Jenny?” I shoot back at her.

“An eighth please. Thank you” Jenny replied as she returned to her girlfriend who seemed to be patiently waiting to attack her face again.

“No problem. You two have fun and keep your clothes on until I return.” That was met with Jenny removing her shirt and throwing it at me. I leave the house and head towards my car. The evening air felt cool on the exposed skin of my legs and arms as I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I unlock the car and get inside. The drive to the clinic was about 15 minutes east of me. I picked up my phone and pulled up Jo—Babe was his name in my phone with a heart emoji. After a pause, I hit the call button. It rang until it went to voicemail. He was still understandably upset at me so I sent him a text letting him know I was sorry and that I’d like him to join me tonight. He most likely wouldn’t even respond. That’s how Jo is, he takes a day to calm down after an argument before we talk again unless it’s an emergency.

I start the drive to the clinic singing to songs on the radio to distract me from thinking about Jo. Halfway there I get a text. At the next red light I pick up my phone excited but immediately my mood changes.

_Hey baby, you free tonight?_

I didn’t feel like dealing with this tonight. I sighed and put my phone down. The night was still young, but the chances of my boyfriend coming to see me or talking to me were slim. Instead I called my sister, Evaline. She was in town for the month visiting some friends and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see her. Unfortunately she was busy so I was flying solo tonight.

The visit to the clinic was short and I was on my way back in no time. When I got back inside, it was obvious that things had heated up between my roommates. Clothes were scattered on the floor leading to their room, no doubt a cheeky signal to me that they were doing naughty things. I called to Jenny that I was back and left her purchase on the table. I then retreated into my room in an even more somber mood. As I was just finishing smoking my first bowl, Jenny walked in sans clothes.

“Thank you gorgeous. We went out and got those spicy noodles you like. Why don’t you come out and join us? You can keep your clothes on,” she disappeared out the door, “or not!”

I knew she was joking, but as the wave of euphoria from the marijuana overtook me, I didn’t care. I removed the shackles of comfort and walked out into the living room.

“Woah! Look at Kara conforming to the colony! Welcome to the life of nudism!” Cynthia laughed before putting some rice into her mouth. I sat down with them on the couch while Jenny scrolled through Netflix looking for a show to watch. As I reached over for some noodles, Cynthia grabbed one of my boobs. “Had to take advantage Kara. Sorry not sorry!” she giggled.

We watched some cartoons and ate dinner on the couch. Afterwards we smoked some more. My mind was cloudy but my body felt nice and relaxed. I went to check my phone to see another text not from Johannes. I sighed again. I sent him another text and another came through.

_So no sex then?_

I wasn’t in the mood to deal with this pompous asshole’s shit right now. Wayne was the guy I mistakenly left Johannes for but thinks that random booty calls are a thing. In my current state, I had no patience for him or anything he had to say to me. Especially if all he wants is to get into my pants, which were currently lying on the floor. I walked back into the living room to see the two girls engulfed in each other’s faces yet again. I contemplated going back in my room when I decided, still with no clothes on, that I wasn’t backing down. They won the battle earlier, but I will win the war. This was going to be the most intense game of chicken I’ve ever played.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The rest of the week went by smoothly. My roommates teased me of our lesbian encounter a few nights ago but it was just friendly banter. Jo and I were waiting on a sponsor but no word yet. We’re hoping this could be our big break. It was one day until he was coming to pick me up for our weekend adventure. I was extremely excited to say the absolute least. I kept feeling myself smiling for no reason. When Thursday morning came, I awoke to a quiet house meaning that my roommates had gone to work. I have a normal day job as well, but I’m not scheduled to go in until 2 pm. I stretched out and got up to take a hot shower. I had a decent amount of work to do today before I left and I didn’t want to start too late. After my shower I proceeded to get dressed in my room and call my sister. After 3 rings she picked up.

“Kara! Hi my favourite sister! How are you?” her bubbly voice sang into my ears.

“I’m great! How are you? You need to come see me, I miss you!” a smile leaped across my face. As we talked and made plans to see each other next week. After getting off the phone, I sat at my desk and prepared to call another potential sponsor to work out a deal hopefully. As I called I checked my email and was pleased to see quite a few inquiries about our media position. I forwarded the ones I liked best to Jo so he can look through some of the photos and videos from the candidates. It neared noon and I still had nothing from anyone I called. All we needed was one big sponsor and we would be golden. Until then, I just have to keep plugging away. I got up to make myself a sandwich. Turkey and swiss cheese with lettuce and tomatoes. I was halfway done when my phone rang so I dropped the knife and bread and ran into my room. When I got there my heart pounded. It was another booty call, but this time not from Wayde. It was from the guy I cheated on Wayde with. I’m not proud of those decisions and I never thought I would be the type to cheat on anyone, but it happened. I had no attachment to Wayde and I feel that’s what made it easier. But now, as my phone rings, I am stuck. I could tell him that we’re done. I answer the phone and he simply says, “I want to see you tonight.” *click* I sigh and return to my sandwich. I would just have to turn him away, which is easier said than done especially given the fact that my roommates will be home when he shows up; they actually like him as a person. I don’t but the sex is great.

I ate and left for work. Thursday is my last day of work for this week so I was all too ready for Friday. It seemed to crawl by so slowly. Since I’m a retail manager, I have duties, but there’s a fair amount of downtime so I was texting friends my entire shift. We I got off at 6, I made my way home. That’s when I saw it. The Challenger. Here’s my bumpy patch on an otherwise smooth stretch of highway. I enter the house and he’s there having a laugh with the girls.

“Hey Kara, long time no see!” he chuckles flashing his devilishly handsome smile.

“Yeah. Can I talk to you?” I say as I head to my room.

I heard a light knock on the door and when I turned, there he stood. I felt the familiar buzz I felt all too well when I was with him; my heart raced and it was almost as if I could feel the blood pump through me.

“We can’t do this anymore.” I say simply. I tried to keep my composure so as to not make it seem like I wanted this. “I think it’d be best for you to leave.”

“Some greeting. Kara, sweetie. We have a good time, why not keep the good times rolling?” He smiles at me. That coupled with his accent were enough to persuade me before but I can’t.

“I have a boyfriend. You know this.” I return unwavering.

“That didn’t stop you last time. Come on, nobody will know. I thought you liked the excitement.”

“I do, but, I can’t.” I was losing my will, breaking with each passing moment. Luckily my phone rang again. I ran over to it and picked up.

“Hello?” I answered.

“ _Hey baby how are you?_ ” It was Jo. Thank god. Maybe this will be enough to keep my wits about me.

“Hey babe!” I shot a look at the embodiment of a modern day Adonis in front of me. “I’m doing good! Just got home from work. What’s up?”

I felt a presence behind me and smelled the scent of his manly fragrance.

“ _Nothing much. Just finished up some work and I’ll probably go out for a drive. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”_ Even though it was becoming harder for me to focus, I could hear the delight in his voice at the prospect of us being together.

“Me too! I’ll be looking forward to it all night. Hey, can I ummmmmm call you back after I shower?”

 _“Yeah of course. Love you.”_ That hurt. Because no matter how much I didn’t want to do what I was about to. It was still going to happen.

“Love you two baby. No drifting.”

“Okay. Bye.” He chuckles before he hangs up.

With that I hung up the phone. Throughout that call, I managed to have both my shirt and shorts removed. How I got into this predicament, I don’t know.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

After a night of regret, I woke up at around 8 am feeling disgusted with myself. Not for the act itself, but because Jo deserves so much better. I shouldn’t have been led astray so easily. I went into my bathroom and turned on the shower. As the water flowed over my body, tears streamed down my face. I had been hit full force with the fact that I just cheated on the man I love immensely and also the question of whether I love him. Surely someone who is in love, wouldn’t succumb to outside influences to be unfaithful. But we had this weekend planned and I must go through with it. I need to tell the man who is currently in my bed that we’re done. I leave the bathroom in the pink bikini I picked out for today and wake him up.

“You need to leave.” I say in a flat, harsh tone as I grabbed my shorts and put them on.

“Wah? Babe come back to bed.” He yawns. I was starting to get mad. But I didn’t want to raise my voice in case my roommates were up.

“I’m not your babe. Get up and grab your shit. You need to leave. We’re done. That was the last time.”

“Whatever you say. You said that the last time and look where we are now.” He gets up and grabs his starts getting dressed. I see the scratch marks I left on his muscular back.

Just then I hear Jenny’s voice just a touch louder than necessary, “Hey Jo! Let me go get Kara. I don’t know if she’s awake yet.”

My heart started racing again. This can’t happen not now. Jenny opened the door and looked me dead in the face.

“Are you ready yet? If not you need to hurry the fuck up.” She whispers.

“Yeah I’m ready!” I grab my shoes and my bag. Jenny then looked to my partner from last night. “You are not to leave this room until I tell you, understand?” To which he stays silent. She lets me out of the room and says in my ear, “That was too close. Be more careful next time.” I leave the house with my boyfriend. My heart was still racing as we drove down the street. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and my body buzzed with excitement. I shouldn’t have been excited but I was.

Jo pulled out all the stops. We went to the beach and spent all day there. Just being able to spend time with him was all I needed but the fact that we were able to have fun was even better. We cuddled up on the beach and watched the sunset and Jo ran and got some champagne from the cooler in the car. I acted surprised but I had peeked and already saw it. The best part was I was able to forget what happened earlier until we got back to my place. Thankfully Jenny is a sweetheart and she washed my sheets for me. Jo spent the night and as he showered I explained to the girls everything from the previous night until today.

“Johannes cannot find out.” Cynthia chimes in when I was finished. “It would destroy him.”

“I know. I feel worse than awful. But I’m going to block his number and just stay away from him. This can’t happen again.” But as I say this I can’t help but think of how good last night was. It wasn’t just the sex. It was more than that, but I didn’t know what.

“Forget how you feel. Think about Jo. Cyn’s right. He’ll be crushed.” Jenny adds.

“I know okay? Please stop jumping all over me, I don’t want to cry again. Then he’ll really know something is wrong.” Tears were already forming in my eyes and I wiped them away as quickly as they came.

When my boyfriend exited the shower, we all enjoyed the pizza we ordered and the mixed drink of our choice; Jack and Coke for Jo and myself while Cynthia and Jenny sipped on margaritas. After the movie we watched Jo and I retreated to bed. We cuddled for a long time just talking to keep each other awake, longing to keep the moments going. Eventually, Jo’s deep breathing signaled to me that he was asleep. With his arm draped over me I snuggle closer. I love his warm embrace and his scent. I breathe deeply, inhaling the smell of his natural musk mixed with the soap and shampoo he uses. I feel safe and secure but also I feel complete. My phone illuminates and I look at the screen and my heart drops. That completeness I feel immediately vanishes. I love Johannes more than ever and the thought of ever breaking his heart hurts me but the excitement in our relationship has gone stale for me. I wouldn’t say stale, but it’s missing something. My heart no longer races with adrenaline when I’m around him; instead, I feel comforted and at home anytime I’m with my boyfriend. But I need it, to say I’m an adrenaline junkie is an understatement. My veins no longer pump with it when I get in the car with him, only when I fear he is hurt from a crash and that doesn’t happen too often. I’m comfortable, and this is the only time I can say that I don’t want comfort. I hate myself for cheating on him, but with each encounter and the thought of getting caught, I can’t help but chase that next rush.

_The garage. 1 hour. Yes?_

My heart rate started to rise again. Can Jo feel it? He hasn’t moved or made any indication that he’s awoken. How can he not feel it? How can he not hear it? My heart was literally pounding. The sound was deafening. I shouldn’t go. “Do not do it.” I tell myself. But I take a deep breath and slide out from the warmth immediately feeling cold to my core. I go to the bathroom and grab my clothes from earlier off the floor all the while my heart is racing. Within a few minutes I’m out the door.


	11. Chapter 10: Lauren pov

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now back to the original programming.

“Long time, no see.” The tall strawberry blonde had said as she closed the distance and stood in front of us. Her French was diluted from living in the States for a long period of time. “Commet allez-vous, mon rossignol?”

We had both hugged and kissed each other’s cheek, it being a French custom in greeting someone. My smile had never wavered as she looked down at my son, who was being shy on hiding behind my leg. “Whose this little one?” She asked as she crouched down to his level and he hid more behind my leg.

“I’m okay. I could be better.” I answered her question as I watched her smile at my son. “Kirsten, this is my son, William.” I introduced her to him. “William this is one of mommy’s friends. Can you say hi to Kirsten?” I asked as her eyes went to my face before returning to my son. She extended a hand out to him for a handshake as he was still hiding, peeking ever so slightly from my leg.

“It’s very nice to meet you, William. You look just like your mommy.” She said to him as she dropped her hand and standing up. I had to apologize for him being so shy, but she waved it off like it wasn’t a problem. I nodded as I told her to make herself comfortable on the couches we had in the shop as I went to grab my son’s things out of my street car to keep him busy as we talked. I had set everything up on the coffee table and he had went back to coloring one of the pages he was working on earlier.

I had told her what happened after she had left France when I was eleven, getting pregnant at seventeen, and getting kicked out of the house and being disowned by both parents and siblings. I told her about Ansel and his family taking me in as I went through the pregnancy, the birth of William, and everything leading up to the present. Throughout the whole time I was telling her everything that had happened to me, she had casted small glances at my son and find her smiling at him as he was busy coloring.

She looked back at me when I was finished talking. “Wait a minute. When you got kicked out of your folks home, you asked your siblings for help and they just ignored you? Pretended like you didn’t exisit?”

I nodded and she had cursed in French. She was my older brother’s best friend and my crush when I was little. She was - still is- beautiful with her long strawberry blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and a body of a dancer. The nickname she called me by was from when I was like eight or nine, she would stay really late hanging out with my brother or would sleep over and she would hear me sing in my room at night. To this day she has never stoppped calling my by that nickname. “Il est tres bien, mon loup. I’m actually going to talk to my siblings when they come for the first round of the season.”

When I had told her that they were going to come to the first round, she wasn’t too surprised. I mean, she was the second person to know about my siblings coming to the first round. The first person to know that my siblings are coming was Ansel, but only because he knew my siblings back when I had gotten pregnant. He didn’t seem angry, but I knew he wasn’t too happy with them. “To be honest, I wouldn’t know how they would make amends to the relationship that been broken many years ago.” I looked over to William, who was still coloring. “A part of me wants to forgive them and be part of my son’s life, but the other half is wanting to be mad at them for what they did.”

She looked at me then to my son before looking back at me. I had a feeling that she was here for some reason and I’m going to find out why she had shown up out of the blue along with how she had found me. “Mon rossignol, you should hear them out on what they have to make amends with you.” She told me as she winced a little bit. She knew she had slipped up. “Besides, holding grudges isn’t any good for you.”

I stared at her as I pulled my hair to one side. “Can I ask you one question?” I asked before adding, “Well a few questions actually.”

She had looked at me, bracing herself to answer questions I would be asking. “To start off, how did you find out where I was? Secondly, how did you know they really want to make amends with me? And lastly, did they send you? Is that the reason why you’re here?”

When I had asked those questions she had let out a sigh before she looked me in the eye. The look she gave me told me everything I needed to know. “Tell me the truth, Kirsten. Did Kieran send you here? And don’t you lie to me.”

She took another deep breath and sighed again, before answering me. “Yes, your brother had called me the other day to see how you were and if you were really willing to talk to them. So he gave me Ansel’s number, I called the number to get the address to the shop.”

I sighed and rested back against the couch as I closed my eyes, putting an arm over my eyes to think about what she had told me. Even though I had told my brother I was going to talk to him at the first round of the season, he still didn’t believe me. “Incroyable. Apres tout ce temps, il ne me croit toujours pas que je les recontrer.” I had mumbled in French before I had felt someone sitting next to me. I took my arm off to see my son sitting next to me, looking at me with concerned eyes.

“Are you okay mommy?” He asked me as he crawled onto my lap. “Are you tired?”

I gave him a reassuring smile before putting a hand on his head, ruffling up his hair. “Mommy is okay.” I told him as I kissed his forehead. “Mommy is just a little tired.” I looked over to Kirsten before looking at William as he yawned. I looked at the time and saw it was a little after two in the afternoon. This is usually the time he takes his afternoon nap.

“Lauren, you know your brother means well. He’s really desperate about wanting to talk to you.” Kirsten had spoke in a calm tone. I was surprised she had heard what I said. I nodded as I felt William’s head leaned against my chest. I was aware I was in my race suit that had some grease on it. “William sweetie, why don’t you go lay down on the couch for a bit. Mommy needs to change.”

A few minutes later once I had changed I came back to see my son was asleep on the couch and saw Kirsten looking at the photos we had around the shop. I had walked over to where she was standing and saw the picture she was looking at. It was the night when Nico, Jo, and I when had first met we had all went out to dinner at one of the local hole-in-the-wall restaurants that was in France and we were all having a great time. We had drinks in front of us along with food and we wanted to take a picture since we thought we’d never seen each other after that race weekend was over. I had Ansel take the picture of us and we all smiled. Below that picture was on the last day of the race weekend as the three of us decided to take a group picture. “Who are these two?” Kirsten had asked as she looked at the other pictures. “They are quite handsome men.”

I smiled as I looked at her before looking back at the pictures. “Those two are my housemates and best friends. This one is Nico and this is Johannes, but we call him Jo.” I pointed who was who in the picture. “Ansel and I had met them a few years ago when they were competing in one of the competitions that was held in France. After that race weekend we had became the best friends and never lost contact with each other. Jo has been living here in the States for the past six years. Nico has been here for a little over a year. Ansel, William, and I had moved her two years ago. Since all of us were going to be here in once place we thought we would get a place together and get a shop so we can put our cars and worked on them.”

Kirsten had nodded and kept looking at the pictures. Two hours had passed and she headed home, but promised to keep in touch with me. William and I locked up the shop before headed back home. I know the boys, Nico and Jo, will be back late tonight. I didn’t know exactly when Ansel would be back, but he’ll be back hopefully sometime this week. On the drive back to the house I couldn’t help think about what my brother was thinking. I couldn’t believe he didn’t believe me when I said I would talk to him at the first round in Long Beach, but I guess it was understandable he would think that. I was still a little bitter when he and Alyx didn’t help me back then when our parents had kicked me out of the house and disowned me. I’ll have to worry about what they have to say to me another day since I need to respond to emails and confirm some contracts with the sponsors who were already on board with our program. There was so much to do in the time frame we have.

~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning both William and I were awake. I had headed out to the kitchen to make some coffee and William had went into the other room to watch some television when I heard Jo’s excited voice coming into the kitchen.

“Lauren! I’m getting anti-lag! I’m going to sound like fireworks!” He had laughed and had gotten excited with him.

“That’s rad!” I told him before I had gave him a look. “Are you putting the anti-lag on your drift car or street car? ‘Cause I have a feeling you’re going to do both.”

I could see the gears turn in his head as he thought about putting it in the street car, but if he did that the local cops would be called on him. He didn’t want that. We get away with testing our race cars in empty parking lots. We didn’t want to push our luck. “Just the race car. We’re getting everything for free! But the work is going to take a week at least. I’m going to make bang bang noises!” He whooped as he was punching the air. I could tell he was on cloud nine with the good news. He’s been wanting to get his anti-lag system for the past few months, so I can see why he was celebrating.

“That’s awesome!” I told him as I thought about a few days ago when I had asked him to check out the Gen and figure out what was exactly wrong with it so I could fix it. I needed to tell him and Nico about what I did a year before meeting them. “So the Gen is all fixed up.”

He looked a bit surprised before a smug expression replaced the surprise. “Oh really? Ansel stopped being stubborn and let you tell him it was broken?”

I shook my head. “Not really.” I looked away from him, nervous on what his reaction would be. “He doesn’t know what was broken was fixed.”

“What, did you fix it yourself?” He asked as I could tell he was puzzled on who had fixed the Genesis up. I looked back at him, his light brown eyes showed his confusion. It was now or never. I took a deep breath and exhaled. “Yes. There’s something I need to tell you and Nico.”

He kept staring at me as he waited. “Well what is it, and where is Nico?”

“I know how to drift and fix cars? I didn’t tell you this because I haven’t drifted in years. I stopped drifting a year before I met you and Nico.” I told him as I tried to gauge his reaction. “And he’s most likely at work.”

He was quiet for a little bit as I held my breath before he replied, “Uh huh. And you kept this a secret from us why!? Do you understand how much fun we could have? Gosh Lauren, you’re so selfish sometimes.” He playfully stuck his tongue out at me. I had let go of the breath I was holding and let out a small giggle. I was very relieved that he wasn’t mad I kept this secret from him.

“I didn’t know how you and Nico would handle that I know how to drift and fixed cars.” I told him and he kept his playful act up. “We would probably just go drifting all the time! We can have threesomes!” He had a slight pause and realization had hit him about his choice of words, eyes wide as he quickly fixed his mistake. “Tandems, I mean!”

I laughed and shook my head at him. “Sure. Let me build my own drift car and we can have all the threesomes you want.” I told him playfully and he threw his head back in laughter. As he was laughing, my smile had slowly went away as I thought about the first round and my siblings coming to the States to talk to me. “There’s another thing I should tell you.”

He was still being playful and joking around. “Look, if you want to have the other kind of threesome, we have to be careful. I have a girlfriend.”

“And I have a fiancé whose cheating on me,” I retorted and lowered my voice. “But that’s not what I wanted to tell you. I have a twin sister and an older brother. They’re coming to the first round in Long Beach.”

Bringing Ansel’s infidelity had changed my mood and I had felt bad for changing the playful mood that was going on. I had watched Jo from happy to angry within a few seconds. I knew he and Nico didn’t like Ansel, but they had tolerated him for the sake of myself and William. “Hellig dritt! That’s a whole lot of shit going down. You sure that jævla drittsekk is cheating on you? And you have siblings?” He had cursed in Norwegian, making sure he wasn’t too loud.

I was glad he kept his voice down because even though Jo cursed in his native tongue I didn’t want my son to hear him and ask what it meant. He was far too young to know the curse words, but i know he will learn them one day, just not now. "Don’t worry, I have it handled.“ I reassured Jo that I had everything under control, even though I didn’t really. I just had to convince him I did. "And yes, I have siblings. I did come from a family, Jo. But they had disowned me when I had gotten pregnant.” I said with a sarcastic undertone.

He disregarded the sarcastic undertone. “That’s shitty. You know we both have your back. If you need us, we’re here.” He reassured me as both he and Nico would have my back when I would need it. I gave him a slight smile. “I know. Hopefully I’ll be able to find out who he’s talking to.”

“We’ll find out in due time.” He replied as he flashed me an evil smile. “And when we do, I’ll break his legs.”

“Not if I break them first. But I don’t think that’s a good idea because William loves his father.” I sighed. Even though his father isn’t faithful to his mom. I thought to myself.

“We won’t kill him. Just make it a bit tough for him to get around to see his slut.” He was trying to make light of this situation, even though he was still a bit angry.

I let out another sigh .“That would be a sight to see.” I didn’t really like the thought about Ansel fucking another girl, but I would like to see him in pain for all the pain he had cause me. “I honestly don’t know why I’m still dating him in the first place. He’s done this before.”

“I’m sorry. You deserve better.” Jo said with sympathy filling his voice.

“Thanks Jo. It means a lot to know you care. I just don’t know how William would take it to know his daddy is cheating on mommy, or if he would ever love me again.” I had felt a lump forming in my throat as I told Jo this. That was one of my worst fears, my son hating me for his dad leaving.

I felt Jo pull me into a hug and I returned the hug. “He’ll most definitely still love you.” He gave me a reassuring smile and I returned the smile, a single tear sliding down my cheek. I was really glad both him and Nico we’re my best friends because I don’t know where I would be without them in my life.

~*~*~*

The next few days were a bit crazy, editing my new videos I’d recorded earlier this week, talking to some more potential sponsors, and finalizing the contracts with the ones on board. Today was a bit calmer. Ansel wasn’t back yet and I texted him wondering when he would return home. His response was he would be back tomorrow, but he would be leaving again. He didn’t tell me why he was going to leave, but then again I wasn’t surprised. I had more important things to worry about. For the past few days I really hadn’t thought about what Kirsten had said when she was here nor did I think about what I was going to say to my siblings when we actually do talk. I sat at my computer just trying to figure out what else needs to get done. I sat there waiting for emails and calls from sponsors. I already had videos all set to go for this week and I already had ideas for videos next week. Other than that I had nothing to do. William was finished with his work and was watching his shows on television. I decided to spend time with my little boy.

~*~*~*~*~

I was woken up by someone’s car revving and then a loud bang I knew it was Jo’s car. He finally had gotten the anti-lag put into his car a few days ago and I heard the front door open and closed. I knew that Jo must’ve woken up Nico and I had a feeling that Nico wasn’t too impressed from being woken up by it. I had gotten up out of bed to see that Ansel had left for a bit and would be back later on that night. I had guessed that he was going to run some errands before coming back home. My son was still asleep, but had stirred just a little bit. I let him sleep a little longer and headed out to the kitchen to see Nico sitting at the table, half asleep. I let a small giggle before going over to the coffee pot to get the coffee started. "Rough morning?” I asked jokingly.

“Kyllä. se on liian aikaista olla hereillä.” He had said as I tried to translate in my head, but I didn’t need any translation because I had seen the time and it was too early for either of us to be awake.

I had gotten the coffee started and looked at Nico. “Let me guess, Jo had woken you up with the anti-lag that he gotten installed in his car, huh?”

“Jo on idiootti ja voisin puukottaa häntä haarukalla.” He said as he put his head in his hands, trying to stay awake.

I shook my head at him and poured myself some coffee. “You know he’s just excited.” I told him as I got the creamer out of the fridge and added it to my coffee along with sugar. “You hungry?” I asked him as I put the creamer away and mixed everything together.

“On hän herättää minut sen kanssa? No. Not hungry. To early. Thank you.” He said with a smile as I had given him a small smile before taking a sip of my coffee before sitting down at the table. I sat there thinking about my siblings and them coming to the first round, which is a month away. Nico needed to know what would be going down around that time.

“So hey Nico, I had already told Jo this, but there’s something I needed to tell you.” I said hesitantly, nervous on what his reaction would be. “So, Jo had taken the Gen out for a little test run a few days ago to see if there was something wrong with it. When he had figured something was wrong, I had fixed it when you guys went testing and I took it out for a test run.” I looked down at my coffee, fidgeting a bit. “And I have siblings that I haven’t talked to in years coming to the first round of the season.”

Nico arched an eyebrow to me. “You drift? And siblings? How many?”

I looked up at him. “I had stopped drifting a year before meeting you and Jo. As for siblings, I have two. So if I seem a little uneasy when the first round draws near, don’t worry about me okay?” I had told him as I took another sip of my coffee. I already have enough on my plate. I don’t want him or Jo to worry about me. I thought to myself as I set my mug down and leaned back into the chair.

Nico smiled devilishly, noting the uneasiness about her. “ I look for to meet them”

I opened my eyes to give him a look and saw the devilish grin he had on his face. I shook my head, smiling just a little bit as I drank my coffee.

~*~*~*~*~

A little later in the evening Jo had let it slip that he and Nico would be going testing on Friday and I thought it would be good for Ansel to go up there because he would need the seat time since Long Beach was a month away. Luckily enough Ansel was home tonight. “Hey babe,” I had turned my chair around to see Ansel playing with William, he turned his head to look at me. “So Jo and Nico will be going testing this Friday and I think it would be good for us to go. We need the seat time and Long Beach is a month away.”

He had looked at me with his calming blue eyes. “Sure. That sounds like a great idea.” I stared at him in shock that he was agreeing to go since he didn’t want to go testing with them the last time and since I was just staring at him he added, “What? I think it would be great for us to go since it will give me practice on going up against them since I would be going against them in competition.”

He went back to playing with William and I had felt the smile creep across my face as I turned around to my computer to check how many tires we had left from the last time we went testing. We had some left over, but we would need more. I would have to put in the order for them tonight or tomorrow, but I know it would take a least a day for the order to go through. I had put in the order for twenty-four sets of tires. I would have to call tomorrow morning.

*~*~*~*~*

Friday morning had rolled around and both Ansel and I were up to go pick up the tires I had ordered for the weekend. We had loaded them up on the tire racks and the truck bed before heading straight to the shop. As we loaded the tires, William was in his car seat playing his game on my tablet. Once we got to the shop, we had hooked up the trailer to the truck and loaded the race car inside. We hit the road after I went through the checklist and made sure we had everything we needed before leaving. We had gotten to Willow around eight-thirty and saw Jo’s truck was already there and the race cars unloaded. We did the same with our race car and slept in the bed that was already in our trailer. This weekend was going to be an interesting one.


	12. Chapter 11: Johannes pov

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a dedication chapter to someone close to us in real life. I knew there was going to be a dedication chapter to this special person that had passed away, but my bf didn't know that my cowriter and I were going to dedicate this chapter. I hope you guys like it!

I woke up abruptly when morning came. The absence of my girlfriend by my side coupled with the sounds of idling V8s and the unmistakable sound of a rotary. Stretching, I get up and go to my backpack to get ready for the day ahead of us. As I was brushing my teeth, Kara walks in not looking too happy.

“Looks like we aren’t the only team out here.” Her voice was stern, strained even. “That Reynna chick is here along with Ansel and Lauren. I also saw another team pull up in a stacker as well. We’re going to have to play it smart today.”

I gave her a reassuring smile and finished brushing my teeth. Upon finishing I walked over and gave her a hug. “Slapp helt av. Vi vil være i orden.” I kissed her on the cheek, threw on my sunglasses and exited the trailer. My beautiful S15 gleamed in the sunlight next to Nico’s black RX-7. He was over talking to Reynna who waved excitedly. I waved back but then turned my attention to the new team. By the looks of their hauler, they had some serious money. It was a full sized Nascar style stacker being pulled by a semi. The trailer was blood red with a white and a black stripe running diagonally across the back quarter of it. The two 370Zs parked next to it were menacing as well. They both sported the same dark, blood red colour, but metallic, and some aggressive aero. The team was going about their checks while the drivers walked back from the track helmets in hand. They gave myself and Kara, who had just appeared at my side, a small wave and continued on. I returned their gesture and looked at Kara. She seemed a bit nervous. But she always gets nervous around bigger teams so I brush it off and give her another reassuring hug.

“Can you start the car and let it idle. I need to talk to Nico then we should be ready to go out.” I asked her sternly. She nodded into my chest and I released her. As I walked over I hear the 2JZ of my S15 come to life and I immediately want to drive. I reach Nico and Reynna and she instantly smiles at me.

“Hi Reynna. How’s it going?”

“It’s going swell Jo. How are you?”

“Pretty good. Do you mind if I have a quick word with Nico?”

“Oh no go ahead! I’m about to head out on track anyways.”

“Good idea, we’ll follow you shortly. ”

Nico and I walked back over to our pit area where our cars sat idling.

“Have you noticed that team? They seem familiar but I can’t place it.”

Nico nodded slowly before speaking. “They were from Europe before. now they are here.”

I thought for a second. Still couldn’t put my finger on it. “I can’t recall. Anyways, they look serious and I don’t want to push too hard today. If we stayed an extra day, would you be able to?”

“I always able to stay. Do not need to work”

“Cool. So no tandem today. We’ll do that tomorrow. Use half the tires today and half tomorrow. Maybe we can get Reynna to stay and get some tandem practice with her tomorrow as well.”

“Ok. I will try to no tandem. But I make no promise.” He said with a smirk

I walked around to the driver side of my car and grabbed my helmet. “Dammit Nico, you unpredictable fuck, I’m going out. You coming?”

He was already pulling on his helmet as he nodded with a mischievous look in his eyes. “Yes, yes. yes I am coming.”

Nico, always a man of mystery, got into his RX-7 and gave it a few revs. I looked at him when I got in car and saw his eyes smiling at me. I gave him the finger as I drove out to the track. I saw Reynna continue to work on her car with her team. It made me wish my crew was here to help out but they were still over in Europe. It would make life a bit easier on us as it’s just Nico and I wrenching on the cars with the occasional help from buddies in the area.

The crew I traveled with in Europe was going to supplement our small team l but they had to get work Visa’s first. They would not be here until the week before Long Beach so as to stay over here the entire season. I was excited to have my old friends back as we had so much to catch up on. I slowly drove onto the track whilst reminiscing on the good times I had with my Norwegian friends. When we were younger, around 13 years old, we would get into trouble racing our go karts around the neighbourhood. Since there were only two of us out of the group of five with karts at the time, we would trade of Being the fastest of our group, I would always have them pick the layout for our races so I didn’t have an advantage; Søren, who happens to now be my crew chief, was able to secure cones as his uncle worked for the city of Drammen, which is around 42 km from Oslo, and we used these to mark the apexes of our corners. We would have weekly races until our parents started taking us to the karting tracks more frequently. Soon enough Søren and I started our own karting team.

Nico’s ear piercing FD snapped me out of my trance. He laid on the throttle to display his irritation with my slow driving. I sped up and started swerving back and forth to get heat into my front tires and could see Nico doing the same in my mirrors. As soon as we get to our grid area, Nico starts doing donuts to heat the rear while I put my restraints and gloves on.

“Hey Jo let’s take it easy the first few laps. I want to see consistency on a semi-aggressive line. 80 point qualifying run.”

“Got it babe. Hey, we’re staying an extra day. No tandem practice today because that new team is watching.”

“Yeah I know. Their spotter just walked over with his notebook. Staying another day is fine. You’re up first whenever you’re ready.”

“Cool.”

With that, I revved and dropped the clutch to create a nice smoke screen in front of Nico. I then start doing figure eights to heat my tires evenly. When I’m done Nico lines up to my left and blows me a kiss. I shake my head and take off. I race up through the gears until I’m in third and flick the car in grabbing a bunch of e-brake to slow down and settle the car a bit. When I hit the transition I notice a flash of black in the corner of my eye. A quick glance showed me that Nico decided to go against the plan and We transitioned back towards the wall and finished the run. On the way back to the grid Nico drove up next to me and waved. I shook my head and flipped him off again. When we got back to the grid we were joined by a third person in a yellow BMW as well as a fourth driving towards us in a purple Genesis. Kara came on the radio again.

“What the fuck was that!? I thought you said no tandem Johannes! Plus I said dial it back a little for consistency.”

“It’s not my fault Nico wanted to try and win a championship on that run. He put it on my door so I wasn’t going to back off. You know how I get.”

“Yeah I know but these guys are really paying attention to you now. They called the drivers over to watch. Let Ansel and that chick go next.”

“Copy that.”

I looked to my right and saw Reynna who waved at me. I gave her a wave and head nod. She gave me the tandem hand signal and I shook my head and signaled I was letting the car cool a bit. With it being in the mid 90s, there was a slim chance that the car would see any significant cooling without the aid of the water sprayers and fans I had on, but nevertheless she gave a small wave and took off. I watched her entire run and then got on the radio.

“Was that run good? What would you score it.”

“She hit the line pretty well. Had pretty decent angle but she didn’t seem like she was pushing it. I’d give it an 82.”

“Okay. Ansel’s next. Same thing.” I say as the Genesis roared past me. Ansel did a slight feint initiation on his run. It seemed to set him up well because he looked pretty fast. Ansel was always really good at keeping his momentum throughout tracks. It made him a very easy person to follow as long as you kept your foot in it, but if you made a mistake he would pull away easily. That’s been his style, he’s never been a deep angle driver like myself. He would just consistently hit every mark as quickly as possible.

“Typical Ansel. Hit every mark and was fast. 93.”

“Thanks boo. Going again. Tell Nico to chill.”

I lit up the tires and went again. As I initiated I took notice of the two 370s waiting to come onto the track. Being red they definitely stood out, but I stayed focused. The run felt good. I was more determined on hitting my marks and overall felt i did a damn good yet still semi-conservative run. As I finished, Nico took off. Since we end where we initiate, Nico flew past and threw his car in. A cheeky move to keep the other team off the track but Nico can be like that at times.

“That looked to be an 85. Really good Jo you were a little off the wall. Bring it in about a foot. One more and then come in.”

Reynna and Ansel did a tandem run with Reynna following. She tried her best but couldn’t keep up with Ansel’s Genesis, even on this smaller track. I did my final run on my set of tires and came in. Nico, who had come in before me had already changed his tires and was watching the second run of the battle between Reynna and Ansel. I hopped out of my car and walked over to my friends as the 370s were set to go. As they warmed up their tires, I took note of the sound they made. The team was powered by V8s but they didn’t sound like the LS motors that people had become accustomed to over the years. No, these cars sounded meaner. As they sat on the line waiting I looked around and witnessed everyone present was waiting with such anticipation to see them drive. Reynna was straight faced but rocking back and forth from her heels to the balls of her feet. Nico was his usual calm self but with his sunglasses on I couldn’t make out his exact emotions. Kara walked over and snuggled close to me but kept her eyes on the track. Even though it was a pretty warm day, I put my arm around her and pulled her tighter to me. For the moment, my nervousness about this team went away.

The first Z pulled forward. Its wide stance highlighted by its wide body kit made it look menacing as it faced us and was complimented by the aggressive sounding V8. The red colour gleamed in the sunlight. I glanced to the right and noticed the crew members jotting in their notebooks and talking to the drivers over the radios. This was a serious team; that’s not to say we weren’t serious, but they obviously came with a mission in mind. The butterflies started again. Focusing back on the track, the first car takes off. He races through the gears as his tires struggle to find traction and he enters the first corner with a slight feint. The car settled and he seemed to be off to the races. He was very smooth and very fast and instantly I was nervous again. Having to face these guys this season made me tense up and make me second guess myself a little. Kara must have felt me stiffen because immediately after the run, she kissed my hand and said, almost in a whisper, “Slappe av.” After a few deep breaths, I managed to calm myself a little.

After a short delay, presumably due to the team taking notes, the next driver pulls off. This time, a hard e-brake initiation followed by a clutch kick started his run. His style was a little more aggressive and he ended up scraping some of his gorgeous paint off on the wall. He finished his run and both cars pulled off the track. Nico looked at me, his eyebrows raised and I shrugged my shoulders back. I dropped my arm from around Kara and turn back towards my car. I needed to change tires before going back out so I walked over to the set that Kara pulled out of the trailer. I pushed my glasses up on my forehead and changed my tires. It was then that Nico’s crew showed up. His crewmen consisted of a few of Nico’s friends from Finland that moves stateside. They were cool people but, like Nico, they were pretty flat and to the point. I was glad because I wanted to make some changes to see if I could get more grip out of the car and they were the right people to ask. I walked over and started conversing with them and asking them about any changes that I should make. They gave me a few suggestions and I decided to try them out this weekend.

After making necessary suspension changes I was ready to go back out. In the meantime, Reynna, Nico and Ansel had their fair share of track time. Before I went back out, Reynna came up to me. Remembering Kara’s concerns, I tried my best to not to be flirty or anything of the sort. However, she seemed more flustered than playful.

“Hey Jo! What’s the deal with that guy in the Genesis? I feel like he’s playing games as I’m following.” She explained exasperatedly.

“Oh Ansel? No that’s just how he drives. He has a weird style. He’s fast but then slows down really abruptly and early. After that he’s off to the races again.” I replied calmly.

“How do I follow that!? It’s really fucking me up and I almost put it in his door last run.” She was obviously upset, probably more at herself than at him.

“You just need to anticipate it. You’re also left foot braking too much behind him. Use the e-brake to slow down and then get on the power early. It’s all anticipation.” I again answered calmly trying to get her to calm down herself.

She managed to relax a little and took a second before relying again. “Okay. You’re probably right, I used to do rally so I probably left foot brake more than I honestly should.”

“Yeah I can tell. You pitch the car differently on your entries. You’ll get it.”

At that moment Kara walked up which made me nervous since she had expressed how she wasn’t a fan of Reynna. But, much to my surprise, she struck up conversation with the girl she deemed a threat to our relationship. They began by conversing about drifting and Kara gave her a few tips. I let them talk as I checked my tire pressures so I could go back out on track. I was anxious to go back out and try out the new changes that were made. As Kara and Reynna wrapped up their conversation I was putting on my helmet and gloves. Kara grabbed her notebook and Reynna went back to her pit where her tires had been changed.

“She wants to follow you for a few runs. Don’t go too hard, but to make it too easy on her.”

“I’m going to push a bit. I need to be more consistent putting down more intense runs.”

“Jo, Long Beach is almost here and we don’t need you to crash the car.”

“If I crash, that’s on me. But if I’m not pushing myself then there’s no point in driving. I can easily put down conservative runs. I need to be comfortable with pushing the car.”

Kara opened her mouth to say something and then stopped. She shook her head and then just simply said, “Fine.” I could tell she was annoyed but I didn’t care. I knew I was right. As I drove past Reynna’s pit I her the thumbs up and she followed me onto the track. I started doing manji drifts down the back straight to warm up the rear tires as well as feel the car a bit. It didn’t feel too much different, but we only made small changes and I don’t think I’d really know until I was actually up to speed. Reynna started doing donuts behind me so I drove forward a bit and did circles to warm my front tires a little more. We lined up and I gave her the thumbs up again which she returned. I launched hard and threw the car into the turn just the same as always. That’s when I felt the change: the car settled faster and allowed me to get on the power sooner and that coupled with the anti-lag meant that I should be able to pull away. I transitioned and approached the wall using more angle to slow myself down and using the full grip of the tires I managed to pull myself away from the wall after getting very close. After finishing the run Kara came on the radio.

“Holy shit Jo! That was incredible!” The excitement in her voice made me smile and I slammed the rev limiter and let off to engage the anti-lag as my response. We went again and I tried pushing a little more. I threw more angle on initiation and got on the power earlier and was amazed at how the car reacted. It felt like a completely new animal! After the run Reynna signaled me to stop. She got out of her car, ran over, and opened my door as I was undoing my harness.

“What the hell man! Where did all that come from!?” She laughed. We both took our helmets off and I heard Nico and Ansel drive out.

“I was just testing the new settings we made to the suspension! The car feels way better!” I smiled back.

“Yeah i can tell! You gapped the crap out of me! I need to get my car setup like that! You left me so easily!”

Reynna and I talked for a bit. While Nico and Ansel practiced. I then followed her for two runs and gave her tips afterwards. The day continued on with everyone exchanging track time. Changes were made to mine and Nico’s cars throughout the day as we continued to get dialed in. Eventually 5 o’clock came and we had to shut it down. The new team packed up and left pretty quickly after that but everyone else, Reynna included, stayed since we’d all be driving the next day. As a collective, we all got hungry and decided to break out all our barbecues to start grilling up various food we all brought: Kara and I grilled burgers, Ansel and Lauren grilled hot dogs, and Reynna grilled some chicken. Nico, in typical fashion, sat off to the side and looked pretty. But he was keeping little WIlliam busy so I guess he wasn’t doing nothing. As soon as all the food was done, we ate as friends, smiling and making jokes. Since it wasn’t dark by the time we finished eating, Nico and I decided to hop on our small 50cc dirt bikes and race around the track.

After all the fun had ended we all decided to retire to our sleeping quarters. Kara and I grabbed our two person sleeping bag and went into the trailer, Nico left to the motel down the road with his buddies, and that left Lauren & Ansel and Reynna &her team to go to their respective trailers. Kara and I talked about our day a bit; she brought her notebook and shared her notes with me. I told her about what I felt with the car before and after the adjustments were made. We both agreed that it was a very productive and great day overall.

“You know what would make the day even better?” Kara asked me seductively. It was dark but I could tell she was looking at me.

“I’m pretty sure I know what you have in mind.” I replied as I unzipped the sleeping bag.

“Well, you’ll be pleased to know that I’m not wearing any pants.” Kara’s hands felt around to the hem of my shirt and started tugging upwards.

“Considering you never wear pants to bed, I’m not really surprised.” I stifled a laugh.

Letting go of my shirt, Kara said, “You just ruined the moment Jo.”

“Shut up.” I say and pulled her on top of me, bringing her lips to mine.

I woke up to the smells of food being cooked outside and knew it was Kara considering I went to sleep with a body next to me and that space was now vacant and also possibly Lauren cooking. I got up, put my clothes on, and grabbed my sunglasses before walking out into the bright sunlight. Kara and Lauren were indeed cooking breakfast, but they were joined by Reynna. I walked over and hugged Kara and kissed her forehead and she pulled me in for a kiss on the lips. We all exchanged conversation and had a nice breakfast, midway through which Nico showed up. After breakfast we all broke off, to prepare for our practice day.

Nico and Reynna went on track first, leave me and Ansel in the pits. I was making changes to suspension settings I wanted to try. I wanted a more aggressive setup and was helped by Nico’s friends

As I prepped our cars for the day, a Jaguar XKR pulled up to the track and I immediately knew who it was. Over the last few weeks I have been in touch with friends and family back home because I wanted them to attend the first round of they could. But one person I talked to wanted to come and see a test session to see how we do things and how we conduct ourselves as a team in a low pressure situation, at least that’s what he said. He probably just wanted to make sure we were staying out of trouble and doing well for ourselves. The man walked up and beamed at me as he shook my hand. I immediately pulled him into a hug and asked him, “How are you!? How was the flight? Everything okay?”

He chuckled and said, “Good good! Come, let’s watch! Time for asking later!” We watched Nico put down a few warm up laps, I could tell that he was pushing hard as today was our most important test day. He was using every inch of track he could and maxing out angle in the correct places. Kara, noticing who was here, gave feedback and the called Nico in after that run.

As soon as Nico came off track, he looked over at us and gave us the thumbs up. As we walked over, I could tell he recognised the man standing next to me and he hurriedly got out of his car. Forgoing taking off his helmet and gloves, Nico ran over and gave the man a hug. They held that embrace for what seemed to be a few minutes, no doubt talking to each other in each other’s arms. I can’t help butt smile as Nico and his father share this moment together.

Michael Verstappen has always been a big part of Nico’s life and also the driving force behind Nico’s motivation. A former DTM and rally racer, Michael has won multiple championships across different platforms of racing and Nico, though reserved, has always aimed to live up to his father’s reputation. Unlike some children who try to measure up to their parent’s accomplishments in an attempt to gain validation but to no avail, Michael had always been proud of Nico no matter what he did. When I first met them back in France, Michael spoke so highly of Nico and his face would show how much love and support he had for his son. When Nico chose to pursue drifting in the Unites States, Michael was nothing less than extremely supportive and even helped get the program started for the his son to travel the world and follow his dream. He even helped me at times and gave me advice when I didn’t ask for it a way of knowing. He was always there for Nico and I and anyone else. Michael Verstappen was easily the most influential man in the racing careers of myself and Nico, not to mention any others who had the fortune of sharing a word or two with him.

Nico gave his father a tour around the car and then giving a wave, they walked over to the viewing area for Streets, another track at Willow Springs. While they were gone, I took the pleasure of changing Nico’s tires so he could go back on track. Not to be too distracted by the reunion, I put on my helmet and gloves and started my car as we still had testing to do.

“Jo, I want to ride with you this lap. I want to feel the changes to the car.” I looked over and Kara already had her pink helmet on. I beamed at her, which she could only see my eyes due to my helmet being on but we got into the car. As I drove onto the track, I heard Nico’s car fire up again. We drove out to meet Ansel on the track, who was waiting for tandem practice himself. Kara placed her hand on my arm and looked at me.

“Door.” She said simply. I knew what she meant and lit up my tires. We pulled up next to Ansel and I gave a nod. He led first and I stuck as close as possible. He opened up a small gap but I also wasn’t trying to get too close. I didn’t trust him as much as I trusted Nico behind the wheel. When we switched up the order Kara got my attention again and made hand motions to tell me that she wanted me to drive with more angle than speed. I nodded and we took off again. Ansel stayed close as was expected but after the run Kara yelled to me, “He kept making mistakes behind you! He’s not used to driving against deep angle drivers!” I laughed.

“One more?” I asked her and she nodded. We lined up with Nico this time and I noticed that he had his dad in the car. I wanted Nico to give his dad a ride of a lifetime so, in drifter sign language, I told him I was going to lead with big angle. We took off and as expected, Nico stayed in perfect sync with me as close as he could get without touching. After that run, Kara and I drove back into the pits to be met by an applaudign Lauren and Reynna.

While everyone else was on track, I made small changes to the rear of the car in an attempt to get more grip. Kara made everyone sandwiches for lunch and when everyone came off track we had a nice lunch together. Michael told us about his recent travels and Nico smiled the whole time. It was so odd seeing him this way; it was hard enough to get Nico to smile for pictures, but now he was like a little boy. He seemed so happy and care free.

After lunch we all continued practicing until we had no more tires left. Nico offered to let his dad drive the RX-7 and they went out and did donuts, figure eights, and burnouts before coming back in. Reynna, who had packed up said her goodbyes and left with her small team. Nico put his car into the trailer and said his goodbyes so he could leave with his dad. We would be seeing them at the house, but they wanted to leave earlier than us. Lauren and Ansel wanted to go up to Horse Thief for a bit with the Genesis so they left William with us; Lauren drove the truck and trailer while Ansel drove the drift car. They said they would load the car and come back to caravan with us after a quick photoshoot. Lauren, who took up photography as a hobby, decided that it would look good for potential sponsorship down the line. William helped me load my S15 into the trailer and when his parents returned around 30 minutes later, we all left and embarked on our journey home. After a very successful weekend, Kara and I were all smiles and were anticipating the first round in a few weeks time.


	13. Chapter 12: Lauren/Ansel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me two years to write. Life happened and then writers block happened so I couldn't think of anything until near the end of last year when I finally finished the chapter. Today my beta reader had just read through it and edited some of it, but other than that enjoy the chapter!
> 
> This chapter also switches to Ansel's pov half way, so heads up on that.

I was very impressed on how our testing day up at Willow Springs had gone. We didn’t break anything major on the car and when we had arrived to Willow the guys were already there with Nico’s team. I had met another female drifter, Reynna, and there was another team there as well. The other team that was there had these pretty intimidating 370Zs that had a ridiculous amount of power. The other team that was there had come over to the track we were on and watched some of our runs. Not going to lie, it was a very stressful experience to have someone watching us. I mean we’re used to millions of people watching us all over the world, but when it’s another team that’s different. watching how our drivers’ drive – taking notes – it’s stressful. I had told Ansel to tone down his driving so it doesn’t give the other team an idea on how he drives and I believe that Kara had told the other boys to do the same, but from the looks of it Nico had decided to be an asshole and not listen (like he always does). Fortunately, the team didn’t stay too long and left a while later. That Sunday Nico’s dad, Michael Verstappen, had come by while Ansel and I headed over to Horse Thief Mile to take some photos for our social media sites and also get some alone time. It had been forever that it was just the two of us.

After the weekend had gone by, it was back to our regular lives. Nico had gone back to work at the amusement park, Jo went back working from home, Ansel doing only-God-knows-what, whereas, I’m working on contacting our sponsors and talking to potential sponsors – emailing our proposal over to them, telling about the program and sponsor deals. I was also working on new video content for my YouTube channel, editing the videos, and scheduling when the videos need to go up. I’m doing all this while taking care of my son. It’s quite a difficult task if you ask me, but I manage to get everything done within a certain time frame. Now it’s a week before the first round happening in Long Beach and everyone is scrambling to get any last-minute things to get done on the cars. Both crews of Nico and Jo – including Nico and Jo – were working hard on fixing whatever had broken on the racecars from the last testing day we had this past weekend as well with vinyl, adjustments, and taking inventory of all the spare parts for everything on the car. Within the past few weeks I had to go down to the shop to tell the crew for our team what to do, since my idiot of a driver is a Houdini, he’s nowhere to be found.

It’s quite irritating on having a boyfriend who’s constantly disappearing, every single day, every single week. Especially when he’s needed the most. So, remember when I mentioned I was YouTuber? Well the job is great when off-season rolls around, but also during the season it’s quite hectic to manage. On my plate, I have the following things that is needing my attention:

1) Making new content for my channel.

2) Managing Babineaux-Deveraux Racing.

3) Making sure all my boys – Nico, Jo, Ansel, and William (my son) – are well fed (even though three of the four are capable adults on fending for themselves, but they act like children).

At least this year we have a title sponsor making majority of our expenses a lot easier and we don’t have to pay out of pocket for everything. Our title sponsor was no other than Hart-n-Sea Suspension. This company had started off as a media coverage website, but now expanded to doing both media and suspension. How we got them as a sponsor isn’t really a long story. We just know the owners of the company because they had done some media coverage a long time ago when we were competing back in the Europe competitions. They had given us huge media coverage to get us known out there in the drifting community since we we’re just starting out. Hell, they were the only ones who gave Babineaux-Deveraux Racing any media coverage whatsoever, which over the season we were well known back in our hometown in France. When we had decided to compete in the States, we’d lost our contact with them during the move to the States, but during SEMA 2014 we ran into them. We had played catchup and reconnected with them both professionally and friend-wise.

We had talked to them starting from moving from France to the States and they had talked about their company had expanded. The co-owner, Alice Hart, had told us that they had six offices - Main headquarters is in France, three in the States (Washington, Southern California, and New York), one in Germany, and the last one in Japan. In the midst of catching up we had asked them if they would like to sponsor us for our 2015 year of competition. The other owner, Nathan McNamara, had asked to see our proposal and I handed over one of four proposals I had on me. Nathan had looked over the proposal and had discussed some things at the show, but he had invited us to a dinner that night to discuss more. When the dinner had come around, I had recapped on what our program was and that the pricing on the proposal was negotiable. We continued talking until one in the morning. I didn’t hear anything from them until two weeks after SEMA that they would title sponsor us with the amount we had on our proposal and more. I was super ecstatic that we would have a title sponsor for our 2015 competition year. I called Ansel to tell him the good news, but it went straight to voicemail, so I had left him a message about getting a title sponsor for this year. Then I proceeded to tell Nico and Jo about getting a title sponsor. They were both happy for my team and we celebrated going to our favorite restaurant that was family-friendly.

  
This year was going to be our year on winning the championship. We’re going to make a comeback for not winning last year. Now I had finished editing a video that was done filming two weeks ago and I uploaded it to my channel, but scheduled to post tomorrow around noon. When I emerged from the bedroom, I had looked over William’s school work (since he’s homeschooled) and checked up on him in the living room, watching his cartoons. I smiled as I walked over to him to kiss his forehead before heading to the kitchen to start cooking lunch for everyone at the shop. I was cooking my famous Sriracha Hot Wings (along with plain ones for William), both sweet potato and regular french fries, brownies, and ice tea. By the time that I’d finished cooking everything it would be early dinner time. As I cooked I had fed William some small snacks to hold him over until dinner. I had made sure he had eaten some lunch in between editing on the video. As I started to cook the food my phone had went off with _“Pretty Fly for a White Guy”_ by The Offspring, interrupting my music I was listening to while cooking. That ringtone was set for Nico three months ago when I had gotten tired of the default ringtone and I answered the phone quickly.

“Quoi de neuf, Nico?” (“What’s up, Nico?”) I asked him as I kept a close eye on the food so it wouldn’t burn. It was habit for me to speak in French because I know on how much it annoys both him and Jo. I do it to tease the both of them and in return they speak their native tongues to me as well.

On the other side, I heard Nico let out a small chuckle and some rustling (along with various voices and clanging of metal in the background) as he shook his head. “Bonjour Lauren, commet allez-vous?” (“Hello Lauren, how are you?”) He responded back in my native tongue.

I was shocked when I heard him speak French because I didn’t know that he even knew French. Even though I’d known him for four years, there’s always going to be something I’d learn about the mysterious man that is Nico Verstappen. I had composed myself, before letting out a small giggle, switching to English. “I’m great. I’m just cooking food for everyone over there at the shop since I know that everyone would be hungry by now.” I told him as I opened the oven, checking on the brownies. “And since when did you know how to speak French fluently?”

Nico had let out a chuckle before responding. “J'ai toujours connu le français. J'ai appris ça quand j'étais en rallye en Finlande. C'est hors sujet. Vous pourriez avoir besoin d'apporter de la nourriture supplémentaire quand vous venez ici.” (“I have always known French. Learned it when I was rallying in Finland. This is off topic. You might need to bring some extra food when you come down here.”)

“You’ve always known French and didn’t tell me?” I’d feigned being hurt, but something he had said that caught me a little off guard. I furrowed my brows because he knew I always cooked enough food for everyone. “D'accord? Y a-t-il quelque chose que vous ne me dites pas?” (“Okay? Is there something you're not telling me?”)

I heard laughing when I was feigned being hurt. “Oui, il y a deux autres Français ici. L'un d'eux ressemble un peu à vous ... avez-vous un jumeau maléfique?” (“Yes, there are two other French people here. One of them looks a bit like you...do you have an evil twin?”) He asked as the timer for the brownies had went off and I pulled them out, setting them on the counter for them to cool.

I smiled to hear Nico laugh, but that smile had immediately disappeared and turned back into a frown. When he asked if I had an evil twin, my mind had thought about my older siblings back in France. I knew Kieran had contacted me a few weeks ago wanting to talk and we had set up when they would come. I hadn’t expected them to come a week before the first round. “Does the girl who looks like me have blonde hair?” I asked as I tried to remember my twin, Alyx, had looked before when I was kicked out of the house. Last time I’d seen here was when we were seven years ago when we were seventeen.

  
“Non, cette version de Lauren a des cheveux roux.” (“No, this version of Lauren has red hair.”) I could imagine Nico smirking as he said this before continuing. “Êtes-vous sûr de ne pas avoir un jumeau maléfique? Ou peut-être vous êtes le jumeau du mal?” (“Are you sure you do not have an evil twin? Or maybe you are the evil twin?”)

_Red hair? Even though we were across the world, the twin telepathy still works._ I thought to myself as I shook my head. It was actually quite amusing to find out my twin sister has a similar hair color to me. When Nico had asked if I was sure I didn’t have an evil twin, I shook my head. “Alyx nor I are evil twins.” I was being coy with him. I turned off the stove as I finished cooking all the food. “I’ll be down at the shop in like twenty minutes or so. If you don’t mind keeping the two busy.” I asked as I began packing up the food into a bag. “Is there anything that you and Jo need before I head over there?” I asked as I continued to pack.

“Bière? Peut-être de la cocaïne ou des prostituées?” (“Beer? Maybe some cocaine or hookers?”) He jokingly said as I heard him chuckle. “Je vais les garder ici et occupé.” (“I will keep them here and busy”)

“Beer I will provide, but for the hookers and cocaine is a no-go.” I told him before finishing up packing all the food and then thanked him when he told me he’ll keep my siblings there and busy. “Your usual or something new?”

“Usual please.” He replied back in his broken English. “Why I can’t have cocaine or hookers?” He asked, feigning being upset.

“Because I said so.” I told him in my motherly tone before bursting out in small giggles. “I’ll be there soon with food and drinks.”

  
“Such a mean mum.” Nico shot playfully. “Thank you, Lauren! See you soon!”

When we hung up the phone, I got the food into my car, got William in his car seat, and headed off to the store. I got the beer and then headed over to the shop where everyone was at. When I pulled up, I saw Kirsten’s cherry red truck, the guys’ cars, and crew members’ cars all parked in our parking lot. I didn’t see Ansel’s car anywhere. I let out a huge sigh before putting my car into park, cutting off the engine. I got William out of the car and everyone took a break on working, helping me bring the food inside the shop. Everyone had started eating and I looked over at my siblings, who were standing awkwardly off to the side. I waved them over, being polite, and told them to eat. I got two plates for William and I and got both of us food. My siblings, William, and I sat in one corner of the room.

“Que faites-vous ici?” (“What are you two doing here?”) I asked bluntly as we all ate. The shop had grown into a small murmur instead of full blown conversation. I’m assuming everyone was listening to our conversation. Luckily, only a few can understand what I’m saying. “Je pensais que vous alliez venir la semaine prochaine au lieu de cette semaine.” (“I thought you two were coming next week instead of this week.”)

“Si nous étions venus la semaine prochaine, vous seriez trop occupé pour nous parler à cause du travail.” (“If we’d come next week, you’d be too busy to talk to us because of work.”) Kieran, my older brother, had said in between bites of food. “Nous avons donc décidé de venir cette semaine au lieu de vous parler. Cela fait plusieurs années que nous étions ensemble en famille.” (“So, we decided to come this week instead to talk to you. It’s been several years since we were together as a family.”)

I felt myself get angry. How dare he said it has been several years since we were together as a family. He and my sister didn’t even have my back when I had gotten kicked out of our parents’ home. I tried to keep my composure, but in my eyes, they probably could see the anger that was held there. “Oui. Cela fait longtemps que nous étions ensemble comme une famille.” (“Yes. It has been forever since we've been together like a family.”) I saw the both of them flinch at my words, but it has been seven years since I’d last seen them and over those past seven years I had held onto that anger. I needed to let them know how difficult it was for me to not have my older siblings there when I needed the most.

“Sept ans. Sept. C'est combien de temps cela dure depuis que je l'avais vu pour la dernière fois. Les deux étaient censés me protéger depuis que j'étais ta petite soeur, mais tu n'as rien fait quand maman et papa m'ont jeté dans les rues.” (“Seven years. Seven. That's how long it's been since I'd last seen the both of you. The both of you were supposed to protect me since I was your little sister, but you did nothing when mom and dad threw me out on the streets.”) I lowered my head, exhausted from all this anger I held onto. “Vous n'avez même pas essayé de me trouver après. Tout ce dont vous vous souciez n'était pas en train de ruiner votre image dans les yeux de nos parents, alors que je suis l'enfant déçu dont ils pourraient se soucier moins.” (“You didn't even try finding me after too. All you two cared about was not ruining your image in our parents’ eyes, whereas I'm the disappointment child who they could care less about.”)

Kieran and Alyx had looked at each other and then I felt their eyes on me. “Momma? Can I sit on your lap?” William asked me and I smiled a little at him. “Of course, sweetie. Come here.” I helped William get down from his chair and sat him on my lap, pulling his plate next to mine. I was surprised that he finished majority of his food. I kissed the top of his head and hugged him like a little teddy bear. He always knew when I was feeling upset and tried his very best to cheer me up. After everyone was finished eating and cleaned up the shop, everyone had called it a night and headed home. Except my siblings. They stayed at the shop, assuming I would still talk to them. I tied up my hair before doing last minute checks on the racecar while William had gone over to my siblings to play.

“Why do you look like momma?” I heard William ask Alyx and the confusion on her face was priceless. I was calm enough to have a civil conversation with them without blowing up. I walked over to the three of them and crouched down to his height. “Because your auntie and I are twins. Our mommy had the two of us in her stomach.” I told him simply and he grinned from ear to ear like it was the most amazing thing he learned. “Will you and daddy have twins?” He asked and I was a little stunned. He wanted siblings. “You want mommy and daddy to have another baby?” William nodded. “I want to share my toys with them.”

I didn’t even think about how alone William felt. With no kids his age in the house he’s always playing alone. When I would take him to the park he didn’t seem shy at all around the other kids and played nicely. “I have to talk to daddy about it okay?” I kissed his forehead as I looked into his blue-green eyes before looking up at my older brother and sister. “Come on. Mommy still needs to talk to your uncle and aunt. It’s time for bed.” I picked him up and smiled at the two of them. “Follow me to the house and we’ll talk some more there over some tea or coffee.”

Before I had talked to my siblings I made sure William was bathed, into his jammies, and asleep. Once I took care of my son, I’d gone into the kitchen to get my siblings drinks. They didn’t mind as I got the tea ready as they sat at the table patiently and were very quiet. I had rubbed my eyes and yawned before pouring the hot water into three mugs. I was going to bring all three mugs to where my siblings were, but a hand had got two mugs from me. I looked to see it was my twin sister helping me. “Merci beaucoup.” (“Thank you very much.”) I smiled sweetly as we both headed to the table. “Milk? Sugar?” I asked them as I put my mug on the table before returning to the kitchen to get coffee creamer and sugar. As the three of us sat at the table in silence for a few moments, Kieran cleared his throat. I looked at my older brother as I took a careful sip of my hot tea. He looked a lot older than he was and a lot bigger from the last time I’d seen him. He was taller now, maybe the same height as Ansel. His green eyes were lighter, and his five o’clock shadow was noticeable. His body was now all muscle and toned like he went to the gym five times a week. I looked at my twin and she looks a little older than she was too. Her eyes were more blue than green, her red hair making her eyes more noticeable. She was the same height as me, but a little more unfit. “What are you two really doing here?” I asked, tired from the day.

Both of them looked at one another before looking at the mugs in their hands. I waited for them to tell me what they were doing in the States. Kieran was the first one who broke the silence. “Mom and dad passed away, leaving no will behind.” He began. “We were going to be homeless and since we don’t know if there were any living relatives, we decided to come live here in the States.” I was shocked. My parents are dead. I didn’t get to say goodbye to them and the last time I’d seen them was when I was seventeen and pregnant. No matter how hard I tried later on in life to reach out to them they didn’t care about me so I stopped trying. “We came here on a work visa and plan to get dual citizenship. We also wanted to see you and apologize how we treated you.” Kieran sounded apologetic and Alyx nodded in agreement. I didn’t know what to say. I’m shocked that these two most stubborn, hardheaded people were admitting their faults. I took a sip of my tea before saying anything. “We knew tha-”

“I forgive you.” I cut of my older brother. The both of them were in shock when I told them they were forgiven. “I had already forgiven you after I had let go of all the anger I was holding against you two.” I had my hands wrapped around my porcelain mug for warmth as I thought back to how cold I was to my brother over the phone. “I’m sorry for being curt with you over the phone a few weeks ago and for yelling at the two of you earlier at the shop…” I trailed off and blinked to feel a tear roll down my face. From all the stress that was building up the last couple of weeks were quite difficult. With Ansel being no help because he’s always off gallivanting somewhere and whenever he’s home, he’ll play with his son for a few hours before heading to bed. Juggling with taking care of the racing program, keeping up with the YouTube channel, and being a mom was exhausting. “I’m just so tired.”

I heard scraping of chairs and two pairs of arms wrap around me. My siblings were hugging me, comforting me. The three of us didn’t say anything, but I let them do their job as older siblings and take care of me. Two hours passed us by as we were catching up on each other’s’ lives. They were quite shocked on Ansel’s actions over the past year and then out of the blue giving me a promise ring. They think Ansel is cheating on me and I already had my suspicions on something strange was up, but I chose to ignore it and will confront him when I had the time. I’m an idiot for doing so, but I have other things to take care of that were more important than Ansel’s infidelity.

"Ansel est un imbécile pour vous tromper avec une autre femme et vous laisser élever votre fils tout seul.” ("Ansel's an idiot for cheating on you with another woman and leaving you to raise your son all by yourself.") Alyx’s voice was filled with disgust. I honestly think she disliked him from day one of meeting him. "Je ne peux toujours pas croire que vous et lui soient toujours ensemble après tout ce temps." (“I still can’t believe that you and him are still together after all this time.”)

I shrugged as I looked at her. I didn’t know what to say anymore because I’m tired of defending Ansel’s actions. "Nous avons réellement rompu et nous sommes retrouvés tellement de fois au cours des années. Je suppose que j'étais à l'aise avec la façon dont les choses sont." ("We've actually broken up and got back together so many times over the years. I guess I was comfortable with how things are.") I shrugged before letting out a yawn. I checked the time and saw it was three in the morning and I had an early day tomorrow.

“I can see we’ve overstayed our welcome.” Kieran yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. “We’ll be by tomorrow and we can talk more.”

The three of us had gotten up from our chairs and I had walked them out. It was really nice that I had my siblings again and not being shunned. I gave each of them a hug. “Goodnight you two. Drive safe back over to Kirsten’s place.”

"Bonsoir notre petit rossignol." (“Goodnight our little nightingale.”) Kieran smiled before kissing me on top of my head before hopping into Kirsten’s truck. Alyx kissed each of my cheeks before heading to the passenger side and then they were gone.

****************************************************************************** 

For the past four days both Kieran and Alyx were at the shop watching over William as I was telling the crew guys what else needed to get down on the car. My siblings were having a little trouble speaking English, but I applauded them for their efforts. I was about to tell one of the crew guys on what he was doing wrong until I heard the familiar purr of a certain Challenger. I turned around to see Ansel stepping out of his car before bending over to grab a few things from inside his car. After he emerges a few seconds later with a teddy bear holding a heart with ‘I love you’ written in cursive, a bouquet of sunflowers, and a wrapped present before locking his car and made his way over to me with a smile on his face. William was excited to see his dad after several days of not seeing him and waved, Ansel’s smile never wavered, but I’m guessing he wasn’t too happy to see my siblings sitting with his son, but it was difficult to tell with his sunglasses on. He walked over to William first –who was already halfway out of the chair- for a hug and a kiss on the head. William was holding onto Ansel and he had to adjust him so he was situated on his hip before making his way over to me.

**Ansel’s POV**

I couldn’t remember when I’d last been to the shop, but it had to been at least a week. Last time I saw Lauren was when the last testing day we had. Which would be approximately five or six days ago? I couldn’t remember. All I remember is spending the night in a hotel with a lovely woman. She was so beautiful, but every woman had their own beauty in their own way. She had beautiful, short black hair and the most perfect lips I love kissing and would spend all day kissing them if she’d let me. But alas, our little fling had to end sometime and we would have to return to our lives with our significant others. After I watch that glorious naked body getting dressed, I let out a huge sigh before getting up to retrieve my clothes. I kissed her bare shoulder, up to her neck, and wrapped my arms around her. She was uneasy and on edge. Even after sex she was wound up tight like a spring coil and there wasn’t anything I could put her nerves at ease. After getting dressed and watching her leave, I left a tip for the room maid and did one last check of the room, making sure nothing gets left behind. I hopped into my Challenger and started making my way to the shop. Over the course of the past several days, Lauren had been updating me on what’s going on with the car and our sponsors. We only have a few days left until the first round and our team is on crunch time. I knew Lauren would be capable with taking care of everything. She always made sure everything was in order while taking care of our little boy. In all honesty, I feel bad that she was taking care of William all by herself. There’s a little part in me that stings, but at the same time I never really wanted kids. I didn’t want to become a shit father like how my own father was.

The day Lauren had told me she was pregnant seven years ago when we were in our teens, my heart dropped. I wasn’t ready to become a father, but I didn’t want to be the asshole boyfriend who got a girl pregnant and bailed. So, I did the gentleman thing and stuck with Lauren through all of it. When we told my mom and my three older sisters that Lauren was pregnant they were all apprehensive. Our father had skipped out on our mother when I was three years old, so they thought I was going to leave Lauren seventeen and pregnant. I had reassured them that I’m nothing like my father. They had their doubts about our whole ordeal, but still supported us. When we had told her parents, they were livid, especially her father. Her father told her she had an hour to pack whatever she could and leave. I knew that her family wasn’t too caring for her with a father who’s always away for work, a mother who’s attention was on the two older siblings rather than all three, and the two older siblings tolerating their little sister’s presence.

I honestly felt bad for Lauren being born into that family, but at the same time when she had left that toxic household and lived with my family and I, she grew into an amazing and independent woman. She finished high school as a salutatorian, went to college to get her degree, but had to stay home from college for the last three months of her pregnancy. The doctor had put her on bed rest for the rest for some pregnancy complications, but I don’t remember exactly what the complications were. During those last three months, she communicated with her professors and let her do homework all online. William James Deveraux was born on September 27, 2009 and I was super excited to hold my son in my arms. He looked like Lauren and I was so proud of her for everything: birthing our son, graduating from high school, pursuing a career that would support us now that we have a baby, and just working so hard.

After our son was born was difficult. We both had difficulty trying to get sleep, but I did what I could to help Lauren out with William when she was busy doing homework. My mother and my older sisters would take care of the baby when Lauren was at school and I at work at the auto shop. Since then we were a team. We would work things out whenever things get too stressful for the both of us. When she was nineteen and I was twenty-one, we finally had saved enough money to move into our own place. Soon after Lauren graduated from college and got her degree in Marketing and Business. Shortly after that we had started our own racing team, just the three of us. Now before William was born, Lauren and I dabbled in drifting before and did little competitions here and there grassroots style, but after her getting pregnant and everything else happening, she stopped drifting. After starting our own racing team, I had gotten better at driving and we had entered in the European Drifting competition and traveled.

  
When the competition came to France I was serious on coming out on top. After running a few practice runs, I had met up with Lauren and she was talking to two men. They both were wearing race suits so they were the competition. I’m not going to lie, I was a little jealous because there were two guys talking to my girlfriend. I understand that Lauren is really pretty, intelligent, and she’s everything I could ask for so it was pretty understandable that I was threatened that one of these guys could potentially whisk my Lauren away. When Lauren had spotted me, she waved me over and the two men turned around to look at me with expressions I couldn’t read. We had talked for a little bit before the actual competition. In the end, the three of us podium and the two guys, Johannes and Nico, had become really good friends with Lauren and kept in contact with her.

Fast forward to our current timeline, stepping out of my car I walked to the passenger side of the car to get the bouquet of sunflowers (her favourite flowers), a bear holding a heart with ‘I Love You’ written in cursive across it, and a pack of Hot Wheels racecars for William. I headed over to where Lauren was standing in the shop and she kept her eyes on me as I made my way over. She looked so beautiful for someone so exhausted from nonstop working. I felt a pang in my chest to see the mother of my son tired and working so hard.

  
“Daddy!” I heard William’s voice yelled and I turned to see my son sitting with two familiar faces that I hadn’t seen in seven years. I was having mixed emotions on seeing them here at the shop, but mainly angry because they didn’t defend their youngest sister when she was getting kicked out of the house. I’m not too thrilled seeing them here, but if they’re here then there must be a reason for their visit. I did my best on keeping my composure as I stood in front of Lauren, who was staring at me, unsure why I was there in the first place. I just smiled at her as I handed over the bear and flowers as an apology before kissing her cheek and setting the Hot Wheels on a nearby table. My son had run over to where the two of us were standing and I picked him up, kissing his cheek, and setting him on my hip before looking at Lauren.

“Bonjour, mon amour.” (“Hello, my love.”) I smiled as I took the sunglasses off, hanging off my shirt.

“Bonjour.” (“Hello.”) She said quietly as she looked down at the bear and flowers before looking over at the cars, and then back at me questioningly.

The whole shop was quiet that you can hear a pin drop. I knew everyone is in anticipation on what’s going to happen and the tension was so thick that it’s uncomfortable. I saw movement from the corner of my eye and then heard Alyx speak when she was right next to me. “William, let’s give your papa and mama some alone time to talk.” She said as I set William down on his feet. She got the pack of cars I had bought him and held out her hand for him to hold. “Look what your papa had gotten you. Let’s take them out and play with them.” Never in my life I’d seen William so excited to play with toys with someone who he hadn’t met before in his life.

“William.” Lauren had called out to him and he stopped to turn his head. “Be good for your uncle and auntie.” He nodded before sitting at the table he was sitting previously. Lauren watch her sister open the pack and started playing with William. She looked at me before turning to walk to our shared office and I followed after her, feeling everyone’s eyes on us was we headed to the office. Before Lauren and the other’s got this building, they had it renovated to fit three decent size offices and one huge garage to fit three racecars and everything else that comes with building racecars. Lauren had three monitors on her desk for several tasks that needed to get done. I watched Lauren boot up her computer while putting the flowers in a vase half filled with water, and the bear next to the picture of us as a family. I had leaned against the corner of her desk as Lauren took a seat in her office chair and I waited for her to be the first one to break the silence between us.

“Nice to see you…” She trailed off as she typed in her password to log into her computer. I watched her open her email on one monitor, opening a editing program for pictures on the other, and opening her music and a calendar on the last one. “Where have you been?”

There it is. The question she had been dying to ask as soon as I pulled up to the shop. I couldn’t tell her what I’ve been up to, but I knew she had suspected that something was going on. I have a feeling that she had confided in both Jo and Nico about my disappearance as of late since she doesn’t have much of other friends to talk to. She deserves a better man than me. I know she could deserve better. “I’ve been around. Finding potential sponsors…” I lied. “How’s the car?”

“Stop avoiding, Ansel. Stop lying.” She retorted. “I’m done playing games. You’ve hardly been around. You don’t help me at all with things around here. Like our son for example. I’m the one taking care of him with the help of Nico or Jo. You don’t help with the car at all or do anything else to make it easier on me.” She was irritated with me and I could see it in her blue-green eyes when she turned her chair to look at me. I knew she was dealing with a lot, but I didn’t know it was this bad. “We’re supposed to be a team. I can’t do everything by myself.” She continued as she tied up her hair in a messy bun before leaning back in her chair. I had felt really horrible for basically abandoning her to do all of this by herself.

She really deserved someone better than myself. I moved closer to her, reaching for her hand, and to my surprise she let me hold it between my own. I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed the back of it. She was eyeing me, wondering on what I was up to, but she wasn’t protesting. I looked at her face to see those blue-green eyes, studying my every move as I brought her hand to my lips again. “I’m so very sorry, mon amour. I didn’t mean to abandon you when you needed me. You are truly the most amazing woman I have ever met in my life.” She took her hand out of mine and rubbed her face, groaning a bit. It wasn’t a loud groan, but loud enough for me to hear it. “I will make it up to you for all the times I’ve been gone, I promise.”

She focused her attention back onto her calendar to see what was coming up on the schedule and the notification for her emails popped up. I knew when Lauren gets upset, she focuses all her energy into doing something productive. She had been that way since both of us were teenagers. I watched her work, but there were two people sitting in the other room that I wasn’t expected to see. “So,” I started as Lauren began on editing a photo she took this past testing weekend. “I see your siblings are here. Are they here visiting?” I asked this question and noticed that she had faltered in her editing and undo her mistake.

It was quiet for a few minutes before I heard Lauren speak. “They’re here to make amends. Our parents had passed away and they packed everything they could bring here to the States. They’re currently living with a family friend of ours.” Lauren kept her eyes on her computer as she continued editing. “I accepted their apology from eons ago, but I told them it was going to be a long road for them to make up the lost time.”

“I’m so sorry about your parents.” I told her as she finally looked at me. Her eyes weren’t bright like they usually are. Right now I know she’s disassociating because that’s what she does whenever she’s faced with serious topics. She turned back to her computer and saved the photo she was editing before shutting down the computer. “So what are we going to do now?”

“What _you_ can do is be the father William deserves.” She stood up and stood in front of me. “As for _us_ , we break up. Our relationship isn’t healthy. We always end up fighting about something and then later on makeup with makeup sex and then the cycle repeats.” She was serious about us breaking up. In the past seven to eight years of dating that was the cycle: argue, sex, everything fine for a few days, repeat. It isn’t a healthy relationship and I know that. It still hurt, but she was right. We couldn’t continue with this toxic behavior.

“And for our racing team?” I asked, hoping that I wouldn’t have to find another manger a week before competition. She closed her eyes before taking her hair down and massaging her scalp.

“As for the racing team, we’re just doing business with one another. I’ll still be your manager for the time being, but I will find a replacement after the first round. You’re going to have to rebrand after the first round.” She said with finality in her voice. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close to me. “Lauren I want to say that I appreciate you and everything you do for me. I know I’m not the exactly the man you wanted and I hope you find him someday. You and our son will always have a place in my heart that no one will be able to take away.” I kissed the top of her head and I felt her arms wrap around my waist. “The past seven years were amazing – including all the ups and downs.” We stood there in her office just holding one another for a few minutes before letting go of one another. She looked up at me with a sad smile. She put her hand on my cheek before kissing the other. “Goodbye Ansel.” were the last words out of her mouth.

  
  



End file.
